A recent survey conducted by HR+Survey Solutions, a compensation consulting and research firm, found merit increase budgets are on the rise in the global CRO industry. The 2013-2014 CRO Industry Global Salary Planning Survey found while the highest reported salary increase budget across the globe for 2013 was 21%, that figure rose to 25% for 2014. The country with the highest average budgeted increase is Argentina, with an average increase of 16.1% for 2014. The country with the lowest average budget increase is Portugal, with an average increase budget of only 1.8%. This compares to the overall global average budgeted increase for 2014 of 4.1%.

The survey also found while 60% of the actual increases for 2013 were less than budgeted by an average of 0.3%, 60% of the budgeted increases for 2014 are larger than actual increases in 2013 by 0.4%.

The average budgeted increase for the U.S. is 3% for 2014, which is in line with general industry. Most surveys are projecting 2014 salary increase budgets to hover around 3%.