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While Mr Williams' company has measures in place to combat the likelihood of top performers defecting to other firms, other companies cannot claim the same.

On Tuesday, 70 RBS Coutts employees in the Singapore office resigned en masse, a few months after the wealth manager lost its co-chief executive, Hanspeter Brunner, and South Asia unit head, Raj Sriram.

The exodus was related to the unit's deferral of bonuses.

'Companies that take drastic actions without explanation might experience a low attrition rate during the recession, but once the economy recovers, employees will be more likely to consider other places of employment,' warned Mr Randall.

In fact, market sentiment might have improved enough for the yearly game of corporate musical chairs to start up. 'People might look for other opportunities after they receive their bonuses at the end of 2009 or start of 2010,' said Robert Walters' Ms Chua.

Despite the general upbeat tone in the salary-increase sphere, the industry that employees are in will come into play as well.

Pharmaceutical firms that had a higher-than-average pay raise this year have scaled down their projections for next year, according to Watson Wyatt's research. Manufacturing employees, however, might see an uptick in next year's increases to make up for a nightmarish 2009.

While it might pay more to be in certain industries next year, it certainly will not pay to be Bank of America's Ken Lewis, who has agreed to forgo both his salary and bonus as the beleaguered bank's chief executive.