HEC’s recently completed 2009 Salary Adjustment Survey shows that Hawaii employers are providing lower pay increases compared to the Mainland, and that there is a significant rise in the number of job groups who will see no pay raise in either 2009 or 2010 due to the economic downturn.

According to HEC’s survey, the average pay increase for all job groups in Hawaii for 2009 is 1.8 percent, and projected to be 1.5 percent in 2010. Pay increases in the U.S. reported by a Watson Wyatt survey average 2.2 percent for 2009 and 2.8 percent for 2010. A similar salary increase survey by The Conference Board reports a 2.5 percent median salary increase for 2009 and a 3.0 percent median salary increase for 2010—which The Conference Board says is “the lowest yearly forecast for company salary budgets since the survey began 25 years ago.”

HEC’s survey also shows that 44 percent of company job groups will not see an increase in their pay for 2009, compared to 14 percent who did not see a pay increase in 2008. In 2010, Hawaii employers project that 52 percent of company job groups will not see a pay increase.

A total of 288 local companies participated in the HEC survey, and the full results of the 2009 Salary Adjustment Survey are available only to participants.