An employment salary survey found that employees with large companies from the Business and Professional Services industry recorded the highest salary increases over the 2009/10 year.

The Australian Institute of Management (AIM) National Salary Survey 2010 found that large companies in the business and professional services industry were the only ones to record an improvement in average salary movements over the past 12 months.

These companies reported an average salary increase of 4.99 per cent, compared to the national average of 3.7 per cent.

The survey found there was a large drop in the number of companies that increased salaries for its staff. For 2009/10 around 74 per cent of respondents reported paying employees higher salaries, as opposed to 96 per cent for the previous 12 months.

The AIM survey is based on the responses of 546 large companies and 204 small businesses.

Senior executives and professional / technical staff in small organisations recorded the highest salary increases by job level (4.5 per cent), a higher figure when compared with executives in large companies (3.8 per cent).

Western Australia was the region with the highest reported average salary rise for large companies (4.6 per cent), with New South Wales / ACT reporting the lowest (3.5 per cent).

For small companies, New South Wales / ACT and Victoria / Tasmania had the highest salary increase (4.5 per cent), with South Australia / Northern Territory the lowest (3.7 per cent).

The AIM survey follows the release of the Hays Salary Guide today, which showed that legal salaries are expected to increase by between three to five per cent.