U.S. employers are holding increases in total salary budgets to a level comparable to the overall inflation rate.
The Conference Board, New York, surveyed 285 U.S. employers in November 2009 and found that they expect to increase 2010 salary budgets only about 2.8%.
The Conference Board is estimating the overall U.S. inflation rate will be about 2.6%.
The projected salary budget increase is the lowest the Conference Board has recorded since it began tracking the indicator 25 years ago.
Another Conference Board indicator shows that employers might be about to start hiring again, but "recovery in compensation is probably a few years away," Gad Levanon, a researcher at the group, says in a statement about the survey results.
"In the previous three recessions, compensation began accelerating only several years after employment bottomed," Levanon says. "High levels of unemployment allow businesses to limit raise demands from existing workers and hire workers from unemployment at lower compensation levels."
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