Hopes fade for fat wage hikes in 2013

15% of companies will snob pay increases.

According to Achieve Group's Hiring Trends Report, companies were surveyed on how the salaries of current staff are likely to change compared with 1H2013. 15% of respondents said that there would be "no change" in staff salaries while half (50%) reported that they intend to increase salaries by "up to 3%." Another 29% said they plan to hike wages by "3% to 5%." The remaining 6% of companies reported that they would be increasing staff salaries by "more than 5%."

Here's more from Achieve Group:

On salary increments for new hires, all the companies they surveyed reported they would increase headcounts were also polled on the salary increment that they would offer new hires, compared with the candidates' last drawn salary.

Almost half of those surveyed (49%) said they would offer increments of "less than 5%" followed by 37% of respondents who stated that they would offer increments of "5 to 10%." 9% of companies indicated increments of "10% to 15%" while the remaining 5% reported increments of "more than 5%."

Of the 287 companies that reported an intention to hire more staff in the first half of 2013, 57% plan to increase headcounts by "less than 5%." A further 33% of respondents will grow their staff strengths by "5% to 10%" while the remaining 10% plan to boost headcounts by "more than 10%."