Salary Increase Budgets Drop in 2013 for Every Country Surveyed But U.S.

The bad news:  Early global top-level results released by WorldatWork for its 2013-2014 Salary Budget Survey are showing that year-over-year, 2012 to 2013 salary increase budgets declined in every country except the U.S. 

As WorldatWork's Kerry Chou notes, "The gradual increases in the U.S. are good short-term news, but falling pay budgets in every other industrialized country isn't great news for the global economy, on which U.S. growth is so dependent."

The somewhat better news: The early results reveal 2014 projections that reflect at least a small year-over-year uptick in every country except the Netherlands. Will this limited optimism pan out?  Time will tell. 

Detail shown in the chart below.