Another survey has found employers are planning to give average pay rises of 5 per cent next year. The Hong Kong Institute of Human Resource Management said 54 out of 103 companies surveyed confirmed they were budgeting for 5 per cent raises. The 103 firms, in 17 industrial or business sectors with a total of 131,406 employees, were surveyed between January and October. Similar results emerged from a poll released last week by the Hong Kong People Management Association and Baptist University's Centre for Human Resources Strategy and Development. The latest poll found no companies planning pay cuts, while 1.9 per cent anticipated no changes, said Lawrence Hung Yu-yun, chairman of the institute's remuneration committee. 'Concerns about the euro zone debt crisis and the subdued economic growth in the United States are making employers more cautious on budget control,' Hung said. 'But then we found that our forecasts were very much in line with our previous surveys, so we still believe the 5 per cent pay rise is accurate.' The institution has conducted a pay trend survey every year since 1984. Hung said that in considering wage adjustments, bosses considered the economic environment, company performance, individual worker's performance, market pay trends and competitors' performance. As in last week's survey, the institution found financial services workers will get the biggest pay rise - 6.5 per cent, followed by construction workers (5.9 per cent) and banking staff (5.5 per cent). Workers in non-governmental organisations will receive the smallest rise - 1.6 per cent on average. Many companies will not offer guaranteed bonuses, the survey found. 'Against a backdrop of economic uncertainty, a performance-based reward system provides employers with greater flexibility to offer incentives based on individual performance and corporate results,' Hung said. Senior staff would tend to receive higher bonuses due to their larger contributions. Unionist lawmaker Ip Wai-ming said it was unfair for managers to get bigger bonuses. 'Since the Sars outbreak in 2003, many companies have scrapped the one-month guaranteed bonus and made it discretionary for junior-level workers,' he said. 'As for the estimated pay rise, it will not keep up with inflation. The livelihood of the grass-roots will get even harder next year.' 5.8% Hong Kong's infation rate in September - From 1981 until 2010, the average inflation rate was 4.63 per cent