"On the overall market, a little over 70% of companies boasted higher salaries last year than in 2008," says Ruxandra Stoian, a partner with consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. Whilst up until last year the most generous employers were those in the financial-banking sector, this year they were left behind by as many as three sectors - pharmaceuticals, industry, and IT. According to the HR Barometer study, conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers in December, 85% of pharmaceutical companies granted salary increases last year. Employees in this sector were among the most sheltered on the entire market as far as redundancy policies are concerned, having been less hurt by the crisis.

The next categories of employees that earned better in 2009 than in 2008 were those in the industrial and IT sectors. As for salaries in the financial sector, only 60% of employers approved raises. Things have changed quite significantly from the past years, when salary freezes from one year to the next were considered an exception. "The financial sector moved quite abruptly from a prominent position in terms of salary raises, to a rather moderate one. 2009 was the first year when this occurred," says Ruxandra Stoian.

The raises revealed by the PricewaterhouseCooppers barometer were obviously not applied across-the-board, but selectively, either as a retention strategy, or in the form of performance bonuses for a share of the employees. Non-salary benefits were also granted selectively: luncheon vouchers, company car and a company phone. In the financial sector, for instance, HR managers did away with luncheon vouchers for managers, but kept them for the rest of the employees. In addition, 11% of companies no longer offered a life insurance or accident insurance, whilst access to the company car and phone was restricted in 2009.

Interestingly enough, traditional annual bonuses, such as the 13th salary, the Christmas, Easter, and holiday bonuses were still included in the package offered by most employers, and will be part of the 2010 package, as well.