Iowa
Will you get a raise in 2025? A new Iowa survey says it’s likely
Boeing strike ends as workers vote to accept new pay offer
The strike at Boeing is over. West Coast factory workers voted to accept a new offer on pay that will see them get a 38% bump over four years.
More than 97% of Iowa businesses anticipate raising wages in 2025, but the increases may be less than those doled out a year ago, according to an annual survey released by Palmer Group, a leading Des Moines-based employment agency.
Findings of this year’s 2025 Salary Guide show that a majority of the businesses — 78% — plan on wage increases of 3%-4%, with 14% planning on raises of 1% to 2% and 5% anticipating raises of 5% or more. Only 3% of the businesses surveyed did not plan to give raises in 2025.
The survey also shows businesses have pared back their hiring plans slightly in 2025, with 45% anticipating hiring new staff as compared to 50% a year ago.
While demand for highly skilled and experienced workers is still high, this year’s survey reflects “less chaos” in terms of businesses rapidly ratcheting up wages to attract workers, said Palmer Group Executive Vice President Chris Lorenz.
“There’s less of a bidding war,” Lorenz said. “Companies are concentrating on being who they are and attracting employees who want to work there.”
He said the number of businesses responding to the survey this year was the highest since the company started doing them in 2013. He did not have an exact number for the responses, but say it was “more than 100.”
Pay hikes rise as boomers leave workforce faster than they can be replaced
Wages and salaries have become a focal point for businesses trying to attract workers at a time when Iowa’s labor force is shrinking. Baby boomers continue to retire at a rate faster than the number of young people entering the labor force can replace them. The state’s unemployment rate remains low, at just 2.9%.
Nearly 23,000 workers have left Iowa’s labor force in the last 12 months, Palmer Group Chairman and CEO David Leto noted in the survey report.
“Unemployment rates in Iowa have dropped and are near February 2020 levels,” Leto said. “We are seeing quit rates drop in Iowa and they are now below the US average, which was not the case for the past few years. Due to all of this, skilled and experienced talent is still hard to find, and demand remains strong.”
Workforce participation rate in Iowa remains below historic levels
Iowa’s workforce participation rate was at 66.4% in September, still higher than the 65.5% in August 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and the recorded low of 63.1% in January 1976. But Iowa’s workforce participation rate historically has been over 70%, including a high of 72.8% in October 2008, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
While workforce participation has been going down, the total wages and salaries paid in Iowa topped $100 billion for the first time in the second quarter of 2024, according to Federal Reserve Economic Data statistics.
Companies looking to bring more workers back to office fulltime
Companies also are planning to increase the number of employees they are bringing back to the office full-time. Full-time, in-office work is planned for 38%, up from 33% last year. Still, companies also are anticipating more hybrid work accommodations at 32% compared to 25% a year ago. The amount of 100% remote workers was at less than 1% in the survey as compared to 2% fromyear.
The Des Moines metro has seen several office renovations in recent years as companies strive to make workspaces more enticing to employees.
The difficulty in finding new employees is reflected in where companies anticipate their focus to be in 2025. Employee retention at 37% remains the highest priority, but it is down from the 49% in 2024. The biggest shift was companies placing a focus on new technologies which almost doubled to 14% from 8% a year ago.
Who made the most and lest?
The survey also lists salary levels for a variety of different job titles based on experience. Ranking the highest were chief financial officers with top pay coming in at $689,400 for one with a high level of experience. The low was was $32,300 for an entry-level bank teller.
Palmer Group published the 2025 Salary Guide in collaboration with the Greater Des Moines Partnership, Central Iowa Society for Human Resource Management and the Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance.
Kevin Baskins covers jobs and the economy for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at kbaskins@registermedia.com.
Five people were shot and injured at an Iowa City pedestrian mall near the University of Iowa campus overnight, police said Sunday. Students from the university were among the injured, according to school officials.
The Iowa City Police Department responded to a report of a large fight in the 100 Block of East College Street at 1:46 a.m. early Sunday, the department said in a news release. Arriving officers heard gunfire.
Multiple victims were hospitalized, police said. Police confirmed to CBS News that one person was in critical condition, while the other four victims are stable.
University of Iowa President Barb Wilson said in a statement that three students were among those shot. None of the victims has been publicly identified.
No arrests have been made, and the investigation is ongoing. Police said they are seeking information about five “persons of interest associated with this shooting.” The university also shared the request for information.
The pedestrian mall was closed for several hours and reopened Sunday afternoon.
Here are the candidates for High School on SI’s Iowa high school athlete of the week for April 13-18. Read through the nominees and cast your vote.
Voting closes at 11:59 p.m. PT on Sunday, April 26. The winner will be announced in the following week’s poll. Here are this week’s nominees:
Taylor Roose, Pella boys track and field
Roose competed in three events at the Norwalk Invitational, winning all three in the 100-meter dash, 200-meter dash and long jump.
Daxon Kiesau, Urbandale boys track and field
Kiesau swept the throwing events at the Norwalk Invitational, taking first place in the shot put and the discus.
Alex Burger, Southeast Valley boys track and field
Competing at home, Burger dominated, earning four gold medals. He won the 400-meter hurdles and the long jump while running on the winning 4×200-meter relay and shuttle hurdle relay.
Kolby Hodnefield, Clear Lake boys track and field
Hodenfield, a defending state champion, broke the meet, venue and school record in the 200 and the 400 at the Clear Lake Invitational. He added victories as part of the 4×100 and 4×400 relays. Both relays also set meet records.
Easton Moon, North Polk boys tennis
Moon has started off his senior season on the courts unbeaten, winning all four matches while dropping just one game in 44 played.
Ava Lohrbach, Gilbert girls golf
One of the top golfers in the state, Lohrbach has had a hot start, firing a 35 in her nine-hole debut and a 72 for her 18-hole opener.
Nathan Manske, Algona boys golf
An elite quarterback and basketball player, Manske is showing his golfing skills this spring, coming out with a state-low 30 in a nine-hole event.
Ella Hein, Tipton girls track and field
Hein set school records in the 400-meter run and long jump at the Tiger/Tigerette Relays while also locking in the Blue Standard and qualifying for the Drake Relays. She won the long jump (18-6) and was second in the 400.
Maeve Bowen-Burt, Iowa City High girls track and field
The sophomore helped the Little Hawks land three Drake Relays events on the last night of qualifying, advancing in the 400 hurdles, along with the sprint medley and 4×400 relays.
About Our Athlete of the Week Voting
High School on SI voting polls are meant to be a fun, lighthearted way for fans to show support for their favorite athletes and teams. Our goal is to celebrate all of the players featured, regardless of the vote totals. Sometimes one athlete will receive a very large number of votes — even thousands — and that’s okay! The polls are open to everyone and are simply a way to build excitement and community around high school sports. Unless we specifically announce otherwise, there are no prizes or official awards for winning. The real purpose is to highlight the great performances of every athlete included in the poll.
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The late boxing great George Foreman lies buried in a cemetery in the northwestern corner of Iowa – a place he has no connection to outside of a lone visit to the region nearly 40 years ago.
Foreman died March 21, 2025, at the age of 76 in Houston and was buried in Logan Park Cemetery at Sioux City, Iowa, a month later, city officials confirmed. Foreman’s family returned Thursday to his burial site, holding a news conference with Sioux City Mayor Bob Scott to reveal Foreman’s burial place, marked by a large monument that bears an image of him as a teen following his Olympic gold medal boxing win.
The family explained in a statement released by Sioux City officials that he had visited the Iowa city in 1988, and often recalled the sense of peace he experienced there.
After traveling to the city on April 17 last year to bury Foreman, his family said they immediately understood the region’s appeal.
“Our father lived a life of purpose, faith and gratitude,” the family said in a statement released by Sioux City officials. “To see him laid to rest in a place that brought him peace means everything to us.”
Scott joined the family at Foreman’s monument that lies just a few miles north of the Missouri River in an upper Midwest city of nearly 87,000 people. The cemetery overlooks the scenic Loess Hills, created by windblown silt deposits that reach up to 200 feet high (about 61 meters) and line the river along the Iowa border for 200 miles (322 kilometers).
“Their story is a reminder of how one place can stay with someone for a lifetime,” Scott said.
A native Texan, Foreman rose to fame when he made the 1968 U.S. Olympic boxing team, winning gold in Mexico City. He became the heavyweight champion of the world in 1973 by defeating the great Joe Frazier, only to lose the title a year later to Muhammad Ali in the famous “Rumble in the Jungle.”
A full 20 years later in 1994, Foreman became the oldest man to win the heavyweight championship at 45, defeating Michael Moorer in an epic upset.
Foreman retired in 1997 with a 76-5 career record.
He then moved on to the next chapter in his life as a businessman, pitchman and occasional actor, becoming known to a new generation as the face of the George Foreman Grill. The simple cooking machine sold more than 100 million units and brought him more wealth than boxing.
A biographical movie based on Foreman’s life was released in 2023.
Copyright © 2026 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
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