(NAPSI)-American workers are being asked to check out how they feel about payday. What they answer in the “Getting Paid In America” survey may determine the future of how they get paid.

The “Getting Paid In America” survey provides feedback on payroll issues that affect everyone who receives a paycheck. Based on final results, payroll professionals will aim to improve service while dealing with such issues as retirement savings, information security, pretax-saving payroll deductions and identity theft. The survey takes less than five minutes to complete and one lucky participant will receive a free paycheck and trip for two to Las Vegas.

New Payroll Technology

The “Getting Paid In America” survey, sponsored by the American Payroll Association, is offered in response to the rising role of technology in the field of payroll. Many organizations are looking at new technologies to improve the efficiency of payroll processing. As technology use increases, feedback from employees is vital to improve and adapt those technologies for use in America’s workplaces.

“Feedback from the ‘Getting Paid In America’ survey allows us to better serve our ultimate customers-America’s workers and the companies that pay them,” says Dan Maddux, executive director of APA.

The online “Getting Paid In America” survey is conducted as part of the annual National Payroll Week public awareness campaign. The campaign celebrates the professionals responsible for paying America’s 156 million workers, and helps American employees understand more about their paychecks, the payroll withholding system and other payroll-driven benefits.

Put Your Two Cents In

To view/take the survey or learn more about National Payroll Week, please visit www.nationalpayrollweek.com. The survey will continue through September 5.

By putting your two cents in about how you like to get paid, payday may become more efficient.

By Naomi Caine

June 18 2008

Get a degree and get ahead. That’s the theory, at least. And many final year students will be hoping to put it into practice when they graduate this summer. After all, graduates on average have better job prospects and earn more than their colleagues who left school at 16 or 18.

Graduates won’t get stuck in a dreary job in a supermarket. Instead they can look forward to running a multinational company or manipulating markets in the heady world of global finance. They are paid well, too. In a lifetime, the average graduate can expect to earn about £160,000 more than the typical non-graduate.

But is the future really so bright? Or are this year’s graduates more likely to be slaves to the economy than masters of the universe?

Graduates: are you optimistic about the future?

Lesson in Economics 101
Let’s look at the popular professions. A record number of final-year students are hoping to join a City bank when they leave university this summer, according to the latest report by High Fliers Research. The UK Graduate Careers Survey 2008 reveals that one student in eight from the class of 2008 hopes to land a graduate job in investment banking - only a career in the media is a more popular choice.

Five signs of a great work place

Sadly, they might be disappointed. Banks and other financial institutions have been battered by economic storms and the City is expecting between 10,000 and 40,000 job losses by the end of the year.

The CBI warned earlier this week that more than 200,000 people will lose their jobs by the end of 2009 as the economy takes a turn for the worse. It predicts that the number of people out of work will rise to a 10-year high of 1.89 million by the end of next year, 50,000 more than it predicted in March. Not surprisingly, workers in the building trade and people in the financial services industry are likely to be hit hardest by the job cuts.

Recession worries
The CBI was quick to dismiss talk of a recession. Richard Lambert, the director-general, said: “It is important to remember this is not a forecast for recession. Back in the early 1990s, we had a prolonged period of plummeting consumer demand and there were large job cuts across the board. These days, firms are leaner and more efficient and our economy’s reach is far more global. We should avoid believing a recession is inevitable, or talk ourselves into unnecessary trouble.”

But many students are worried. More than half (59%) who are due to graduate this year fear that a potential recession could hit their job prospects, according to Accenture, the consultants. In fact, the economic downturn is already making things difficult: more than two-thirds of final-year students have yet to find a job.

Four surprisingly well-paid jobs anyone could do

Graduate pay
Graduate salaries are also starting to suffer. The median, or midpoint, starting salary of £20,100 last year was just 3% higher than the figure for 2006. By comparison, average earnings in the economy as a whole rose by 3.5%, according to a survey by Employment Review.

The best-paid jobs are in private-sector services companies, which offered a median starting salary of £22,000, followed by manufacturing and production firms, at £20,000. Graduate starting salaries were lowest in public sector organisations.

If you are a bread head, you should find a job in a private sector consultancy or IT firm, where you could expect to earn a starting salary of £23,487 and £23,167 respectively.

Find your dream job after graduation

But don’t try and talk your way to a better deal. Most employers see graduate starting salaries as non-negotiable, with just one in four (26%) prepared to discuss rates. Just over half (58%) also operate a single starting salary for all graduates within the organisation.

The Employment Review’s findings are broadly in line with graduate salary surveys published by careers website Graduate Prospects, which identified a median figure of £18,000, and the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR), whose headline figure was £23,500.

More graduates for each job
The relatively modest wage increase might have something to do with supply and demand, because there are an awful lot of graduates. Some 7.7 million people in the workforce already have a degree or equivalent qualification. So do employers need the extra 185,000 graduates who flood onto the market each year?

The supply is unlikely to dry up any time soon. UCAS figures show that applications to universities in England for 2008 are at an all-time high. Numbers are up over 7% on this time last year - that’s at least 20,700 more applications. The rise follows a record number of applications for 2007 and is higher than was widely expected.

The surge in numbers is partly down to the sheer force of political will. In 1999 Tony Blair announced that 50% of people under the age of 30 should be university educated by 2010. We are getting close to the target: about 43% of the under-30s have now been to university, up from 39% in 2000.

But some employers wonder whether we have sacrificed quality for quantity. They complain of graduates that lack basic skills in numeracy and literacy, as well as motivation or business awareness. So they are reluctant to pay a premium salary.

Unrealistic expectations
It might come as a shock to many graduates. Final-year students expect to earn an average of £22,700 when they start work and £39,900 after five years in employment. One in six is banking on a starting salary of £30,000 or more, and a quarter think they will be earning at least £50,000 a year within five years.

Don’t forget debt. The typical graduate leaves university with debts of £15,000. And the debts drag down their income, making it more difficult to buy a house - if it weren’t tricky enough already.

The number of first-time buyers is at all-time low as they struggle with high house prices, hefty moving costs, increasing mortgage rates and tougher lending policies. The rates on fixed mortgages, for example, have climbed to a 10-year high of 6.75%. And you can’t get a 100% mortgage any more, unless you can persuade your parents to act as guarantors.

Pipe dreams
So it’s testament to their delusion that 54% of students believe they will be able to buy a house within five years of leaving university. James Crocker, an independent financial adviser with Endsleigh Financial Independent Tailoring, said: “It seems highly unrealistic that a graduate with approximately £15,000 of debt will be able to save anywhere near enough for a deposit to buy a house within five years in the current mortgage market.”

Endsleigh has calculated that a graduate on a salary of £19,000 would have a maximum of £126 a month left over after living expenses, rent, student loan repayments, utility bills and pension payments to save for a deposit on a house. So it would take approximately seven years to build up the deposit to buy a home worth £190,000.

The government believes that higher education is one of the most important investments a young person can make. But I wonder whether today’s graduates will get a good return on their investment.

Top Jobs:
Men
1. Investment banking
2. Accountancy
3. Management consulting
4. Engineering
5. Science, research & development
6. Media
7. Marketing
8. Teaching
9. Law
10. Finance

Women
1. Teaching
2. Media
3. Charity or voluntary work
4. Marketing
5. Science, research & development
6. Law
7. Accountancy
8. Management consulting
9. Human resources
10. Investment banking

Source: The UK Graduate Careers Survey 2008, High Fliers Research

There are plenty of individuals who are looking for some extra income, both in the online and offline world, to offset the rising costs in todays world. Fortunately, some of these good deals exist, and the arean of taking surveys online and getting paid for them is one valid way to make some extra income in your own time.

According to the many people who have already had a chance to do so, taking online surveys is a simple way to work and earn money online.

Once an individual signs up, is qualified and confirms their email address he or she can begin earning money instantly through free surveys that they participate in. Furthermore, there are plenty of consumer company surveys available for use right away that will allow anyone to start earning money immediately!

Indeed, you can not only earn some much needed extra money but you can also get cash back rewards that are offered through special partnerships between online survey companies and individual retail websites.

You can earn between $5-75 per survey depending on the length of time and complexity to fill it out.

Its a smart part-time business opportunity to get involved with online surveys.

Occasional work as a “guinea-pig” has some strong plus-points. It is unskilled, often fun, pays well and helps others - furthering medicine, for example, or enabling retailers to improve customer service. Here Times Money rounds up the options.

Clinical trials

Phase 1 trials of new medicines offer opportunities for healthy participants to make hundreds or thousands of pounds in a few days. However, they represent the first time a drug is tested on humans and come with the risk of side-effects, from nausea to death. The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) puts the incidence of “serious adverse events” at about 0.02 per cent - one in 5,000.

Most trials are run by private companies and involve a short stay at a special facility. The unit in Manchester run by Icon, the clinical researcher, offers pool tables, video games, DVDs and newspapers, plus a quiet area with internet access. The company’s website states: “The hard work is carried out by our professional medical team, which leaves you free to relax and enjoy the facilities.”

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Malcolm Boyce, of HMR, a contract research organisation that conducts trials in London, says that participants can often “sit back” but sometimes undergo cognitive tests or more invasive procedures - swallowing an electroid camera, for instance. “I have volunteered in about 100 trials without a side-effect,” he adds. “The most common discomfort is a headache from caffeine withdrawal.”

Non-residential trials are sometimes conducted. Icon, for example, is paying £1,038 to right-handed males aged 18 to 40 to take part in a trial on the pain-killing effects of Botox, which involves two outpatient visits.

Details of forthcoming trials can be found at EnterTrials.co.uk, a portal website, or at the sites of the trial companies (see box, facing page). Men aged 18 to 45 and of regular weight are most in demand.

Payment is about £100 to £300 a day, often with travel expenses on top. Under ABPI guidelines, the sum should factor in time, inconvenience and discomfort, but not risk. So a £1,000 three-day trial is not necessarily less safe than a £600 trial over the same period. Trials include a check-up that would cost hundreds of pounds in the private sector.

Should a participant be injured in a trial - sustaining lasting damage, rather than immediate discomfort - he or she is compensated in line with court payouts for equivalent injuries. The Association of British Insurers says that involvement in trials should not affect life or health cover.

Richard Ley, of the ABPI, emphasises that trials are run on the principal of informed consent. Companies must provide jargon-free information on processes and risks in advance, and participants can drop out at any time (receiving a fee). “If you do not understand a trial, don’t do it,” he adds.

The British Medical Association has information on the regulation of clinical trials at BMA.org.uk. The framework has been tightened since six volunteers suffered simultaneous multiple organ failure at the research unit at Northwick Park Hospital, northwest London, in 2006.

Dental treatmentTrials of dental treatments tend to be unpaid but can provide free procedures, such as crowns and implants. For example, the Eastman Clinical Investigation Centre at University College Hospital, London, is recruiting healthy volunteers who need a single tooth to be replaced by an implant. This procedure is not available on the NHS and would cost £2,000-plus if performed privately.

There are also opportunities for free treatment by dental students at all UK dental schools. The British Dental Health Foundation has contact details for them at www.bda.org.

Paid to shop

Market research can involve being paid to buy clothes or go to the pub. For instance, Retail Eyes, a research agency, sends its 179,000 members on up to 16,000 “mystery shopper” assignments a month. Members use a shop or service and then report on the quality of the experience.

Simon Boydell, of Retail Eyes, says that payment varies, but members - who register free - earn about £6 to £10 per task, plus expenses, and are reimbursed for, and can keep, any purchases. The agency’s clients include the JD Wetherspoon chain of pubs, JD Sports and WH Smith. “Non-shopping tasks might be nights in hotels or trips to the bookies,” he adds.

While most assignments are straightforward, some involve acting out a scenario. For example, a mystery shopper might be required to ask questions or make a difficult request.

More information on mystery shopping is online at RetailEyes.co.uk. Applicants complete a form detailing their interests and then access details of suitable assignments by e-mail and at the site. Mr Boydell says that most tasks are snapped up within minutes and many take place at lunch times, evenings and weekends, so are compatible with a full-time job.

Retail Eyes is also one of a number of companies to run focus groups. Participants are recruited from its mystery shoppers and are paid about £40 to £60 to join a group discussion on a product or service. Another company offering focus groups is the Campden Chorleywood Food Research Association, at www.campden.co.uk, which pays panel members £5 to £50 for their opinions on food and drink products in group chats or online surveys.

A free haircut

Most hairdressing academies offer free haircuts and other services by students. Louise White, editor of Hair magazine, says: “They are crying out for volunteers. The students are supervised so it’s pretty safe and can save big money.”

Box: Your opinions really are valued online

Online surveys enable internet users to trade their opinions for cash from the comfort of home. Signing up with several survey sites can net the keenest respondents hundreds of pounds a year.

Most such surveys feature multiple-choice questions on brands and consumer goods and take about 15 to 20 minutes to complete. Respondents are usually paid between £1 and £10.

Among the most popular survey websites is CiaoSurveys.com. Members register free and are sent two to three surveys a month on products that match their profile, from cosmetics and breakfast cerals to white goods, pet food and holidays. More quirky tasks include rating possible designs for book and DVD covers. A spokesman for the company says that members can expect to make about £2 to £3 a month, adding that most are motivated more by improving the brands they like than by money.

Members can supplement their survey income by reviewing consumer goods at Ciao.co.uk. The site pays between 0.5p and 2p each time a reader clicks to say that a review has been helpful.

An alternative site to consider is itsyourview.com, run by several market research companies under the slogan “earn £1 for every five minutes of your time”. It sends members about two or three

surveys a month. Meanwhile, Valuedopinions.co.uk pays between £1 and £2 per survey in gift vouchers or donations to charities, including the Red Cross and the World Wildlife Fund.

For more cerebral surveys, you can join the panel at YouGov.com to share your opinion on anything from politics to painkillers and pensions. Members receive about 50p to £1 per survey, but some are “prize draw” surveys where one participant receives a bigger cash prize.

YouGov surveys have a high media profile and the website hosts regular commentary articles by the broadcaster John Humphrys. One downside is that members must clock up at least £50 in earnings before claiming payment, against £5 with Ciao.

All the survey companies expect honest and considered answers. Their software identifies members who tick boxes at random to turn a fast buck.

Searching the web for “paid surveys” brings up a huge number of hits, many of them useless pages of old links. Note that genuine market research companies do not charge people to participate in surveys.

Case Study: Paid to eat, drink and shop

Kelly Hunt discovered mystery shopping when she picked up a leaflet for Retail Eyes at her university campus. The 19-year-old student, of Milton Keynes, says that she liked the idea of “extra cash and free drinks”.

She adds: “Registering online was free and straightforward. I log on to the site quite often to check what tasks are available. You have to be quick to get the best ones.

“I have been paid to shop, to drink at Wetherspoons pubs and to eat at nice restaurants - you can take a friend and have three courses.

“When you log on to the Retail Eyes website you see a list of tasks in your area, but you can also run a search for tasks elsewhere, which is useful if you are visiting someone.”

Ms Hunt says that completing the online feedback forms is easy and that many of the questions are multiple-choice.

She adds: “I have recommended mystery shopping to several friends and to my mum. Because she has a different profile, as far as companies are concerned, she gets different offers - more meals out, say.

“Overall, it’s great fun. The important thing to remember is to hang on to your receipts.”

Mark Bridge
The Times, UK

Not only do online surveys make the gathering and compilation of information obtained a breeze they also give you critical insight into your customers thoughts and changing needs enabling you to improve your services to meet them.

If you are a small business owner you just have to use this tool! Just take a look at some of SurveyMonkeys satisfied customers below.

Brian G
Express Your Opinions Today.com

Maritza DiSciullo, XM Radio
Number of surveys created: 303.


Words to describe SurveyMonkey “Easy, fast, and cheap”


Most interesting SurveyMonkey survey:


“Polling customers to see if they listened to XM Radio’s live broadcast of the Live 8 concert and discovering how well informed they were about the concert and its purpose.”Favorite XM Radio Station
“Frank’s Place, channel 73.”




Ellen Spara, Campbell Soup


Number of surveys created: 380

Why I love SurveyMonkey: “Ease of use. I will ask someone to set up a survey for me and they can do it easily. It’s easy to get your data and it’s easy to analyze results.”


Proudest SurveyMonkey moment:
“My biggest accomplishment is convincing one of our IT guys to use SurveyMonkey. For an IT guy to use it, it’s got to be pretty good.”


Favorite flavor of Campbell’s Soup: “Southwest-Style Chicken Vegetable”


Tim Vamplew, Surrey County Council, UK
Number of surveys created: 221

Why I love SurveyMonkey: “It is really quick and easy to design a professional looking, professional acting survey questionnaire. It’s equally quick to give you the results.”


Favorite thing about SurveyMonkey:
“As a public entity, we’re not flush with money. We’re always looking for good value solutions to solve problems across the organization and SurveyMonkey is one of those.”


What the world should know about Surrey, UK:
“Surrey is a unique county with bustling market towns perfectly balanced by classic English countryside, and served by a County Council that is striving to be an outstanding service organisation.”

Lynn Tincher of lynntincher.com today announced she has joined Constant Contact?s Business Partner Program. Lynn Tincher is able to provide her clients with easy-to-use email marketing and online survey products to help them build strong, lasting customer relationships. Constant Contact?, Inc. (www.constantcontact.com) is a leading provider of email marketing and online survey tools for small organizations.

“My clients are always looking for effective ways to grow their businesses,” said Lynn Tincher. “Constant Contact’s customer communication tools give my clients a valuable addition to my core services. Constant Contact’s ease-of-use and affordability made the partner program a great solution to meet my clients’ marketing needs. I will provide custom service from helping new clients set up with Constant Contact to build their own email lists and marketing to providing marketing advice, editing services, or publishing and maintaining all of their information for them. I will be a one stop marketing and email list shop, all at a low cost to help a small business grow.”

“Email marketing and online surveys are proven tools that help small businesses connect with their customers and build successful customer relationships,” said Len Bruskiewitz, Director, Partner Programs, Constant Contact. “We are pleased that Lynn Tincher chose Constant Contact to provide her clients with our products and services, and we look forward to working with her to help grow her clients? businesses.”

As a Constant Contact Business Partner, Lynn Tincher is able to provide her clients with email marketing and online survey capabilities. With SpeakUp!SM Email Marketing, Constant Contact’s email marketing product, Lynn Tincher’s clients can quickly and easily create professional-looking emails, manage contact email lists, measure email campaign results from clicks to open rates, and review who joined email lists. With ListenUp!SM Survey, Constant Contact’s online survey product, Lynn Tincher’s clients have an easy-to-use tool to gain insight that will help them meet customer needs, generate new ideas, and grow their business or organization. ListenUp! Survey also helps Lynn Tincher’s clients analyze responses quickly; create targeted email lists based on survey responses, take action, and follow-up with relevant email communications.

Today, Constant Contact’s Business Partner Program has more than 1,700 active small businesses who offer their clients the power and impact of email marketing and online surveys. Every Constant Contact Business Partner receives a co-branded landing site, revenue sharing, online reporting, a free Constant Contact account, and access to a Partner Extranet for marketing and promotional tools, content, and materials to educate its client base on the benefits of email marketing and online surveys.

Lynn Tincher