By ANNA TEO

Business sentiment may have tumbled in recent months, but apparently a good one-third of companies polled last month will go ahead with 2009 wage increases, quantum unchanged.

Overall, a Mercer survey of 233 Singapore clients found an average projected 4.2 per cent basic pay increase for 2009. That's lower than 2008's 5.1 per cent rise - but not by as much as might be expected, given the poor economic outlook.

Indeed, 10 per cent of the companies polled plan to pay higher salary increases in 2009 than they had previously budgeted for, according to Ajit Nambiar, Mercer's head of information product solutions for Singapore.

Some 40 per cent will give lower pay increases than earlier budgeted for 2009, while 32 per cent said their pay plans for 2009 will be unchanged.

But 11 per cent will freeze salaries next year. The survey, however, has no information on those that plan to cut wages, apart from a 7 per cent 'others/unspecified' category in the responses on 2009 salary plans.

By and large, the respondents - who include multinationals - will still be giving basic (albeit smaller) pay raises next year despite the challenging business prospects.

Among sectors, the consumer goods industry appears to be most 'upbeat', with the highest projected pay increase next year of 5 per cent.

In 2008, the consumer goods cluster's 5.9 per cent salary hike is second only to the banking sector's 6.1 per cent pay rise - but with the grim outlook of late, the banking folks have projected 'just' a 4 per cent pay increase for 2009.

The two industries with the smallest difference between their 2008 and 2009 salary hikes are logistics (2008 4.4 per cent, 2009 4.3 per cent) and aerospace (2008 4.9 per cent, 2009 4.6 per cent).

At the other end, electronics manufacturers expect to give just a 2.9 per cent pay rise next year, down from 4.4 per cent this year.

The other industries with sub-4 per cent pay hikes for 2009 are property (3.3 per cent), power & energy (3.6 per cent) and high-tech (3.8 per cent). Property firm employees enjoyed a 5.1 per cent salary hike this year.

This article was first published in The Business Times on December 02, 2008.