Most workers can expect fatter wage packets this year with their bosses generally upbeat about 2010 as the economic upturn gets into full swing, a new survey has found.
Nearly eight of out 10 private firms plan to increase salaries during the next 12 months, research by business consultant Grant Thornton International found.
The global average for wage increases in 2010 was a tad over 50 per cent. The survey of 250 small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) across Australia show nearly a quarter of firms plan to increase salaries above the level of inflation.
"We know that Australian SMEs are generally positive going into 2010, but these latest salary figures show how resilient we have been," said Tony Markwell, national head of privately-held business Grant Thornton Australia, in releasing the report on Wednesday.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics will release two measures of wages growth during the next two days, both of which have shown some moderation in the past year.
It will release its labour price index for the December quarter on Wednesday and average weekly earnings for the three months to November on Thursday.
Mr Markwell said positive sentiment on the outlook was reinforced by 73 per cent of respondents saying they had either increased or kept the number of employees the same during the past 12 months.
In contrast, many companies that resorted to redundancies during the global financial crisis as a cost-cutting strategy may now struggle to find "good talent".
"This will not be as big an issue for private enterprises, as they were rather perceptive in their tactics during the downturn."
Instead of making immediate redundancies, the focus was on redeployment and reductions in working hours."
Last week's official labour force data showed the unemployment rate unexpectedly fell to its lowest level in 11 months to 5.3 per cent, a third consecutive monthly decline from a peak of 5.8 per cent last year.
However, hours worked fell by an aggregate 1.0 per cent in January.
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