Companies in Asia are set to offer bigger pay rises this year as the region continues to rebound from global recession, notably in India where base salary levels are poised to jump nearly 10%, a survey said.

Salaries in Indonesia and China will also surge, by 8.7% and 6.7% respectively, whereas workers in Japan can expect a paltry 2.1% pay rise, according to the survey by Hewitt Associates. The survey covered more than 2,000 local and joint-venture companies in the Asia-Pacific region.

Salaries or annual guaranteed pay this year in Asia's fast-growing economic powerhouses China and India, at 4.5% and 6.3% respectively, were the lowest since 2005, Hewitt said.

Salaries barely grew at all in Hong Kong and Japan, this year as companies cut staff. More than 60 per cent of companies surveyed in Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore froze wage levels, compared with only 26.1% in India and 30.8% in China.

Next year, only 6% of companies in India and 8.3% in China expect to freeze pay compared with 12-14% of companies in Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia.