More than three-quarters of Irish businesses 'expecting to give pay rises'

More than three quarters of Irish businesses expect to give pay rises this year, according to a new survey.

A PwC survey released this morning shows that banks and construction firms are among the 78% of respondents planning increases, an indication that the recovery is taking hold in those sectors.

Companies which are hoping to award rises think they will be in the region of 2% this year and slightly more in 2016.

Gerard McDonough, Director of PwC human resource services said that some pay rises will be performance-based.

"The vast majority of that is individual performance, but more recently they're looking at benchmarking," he said.

"Two years ago, less than 40% of organisations were using benchmarking, now it's heading towards 75 and 80%.

"And if you actually tend to deliver on your job, a third of the respondents said they were looking at enhancing short-term incentive pans, and 31% were looking at long-term incentive plans."