Canadian employees can expect an average salary increase of 2.9 % in 2013, according to a national survey of public and private sector employers conducted by Hay Group.
The projected increase is slightly more than that projected in 2012 (2.8 %). However, it continues to be much lower than projected increases of 3.7% before the 2008-09 economic downturn.
B.C. projections, while still slightly below the national average, have risen for the third consecutive year, at 2.7% in 2013, up from 2.5% in 2012 and 2.4% in 2011.
More than 500 Canadian organizations provided details of their planned salary adjustments for 2013 for the Hay Group survey, which was conducted in June and July.
Resource-rich provinces continued to break away from rest of Canada with the oil and gas sector topping projections at 3.9%, followed by mining at 3.6%.
Chemicals (3.4%), business/professional services (3.2%) and utilities (3.1%) were also forecasting increases higher than the national average.
The sectors with the lowest projections for 2013 were health care (2.0%), media (2.2%) and government and telecommunications (both at 2.3%).
Overall, the public sector forecasted noticeably lower salary increases (2.5%) than the private sector (industrial and financial at 2.9%).
