Average pay rises for US workers should hit 3% next year, marginally up from 2.8% this year and 2.7% in 2011, with Denver likely to see the biggest gains.

This is according to HR firm Aon Hewitt’s survey of over 1,300 US companies, which projects a pay rise of 3.6% in Denver, Colorado, followed by a joint next-highest of 3.4% in four urban centres: Austin and the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex, both in Texas; Detroit, Michigan; and San Diego, California.

The industries likely to see higher-than average pay rises in 2013 including mining & milling, at 3.8%, computers/related products and energy, both 3.6%, and automotive and vehicle manufacturing at 3.3%.

Ken Abosch, compensation, marketing, strategy and development leader at Aon Hewitt, says: “It is unlikely that salary increases will reach pre-recession levels of 4.0% or higher any time soon.

“Companies are more impacted by the global economy than ever before; as a result organisations continue to be conservative with their spending, but we anticipate that attitude will remain even after the economy rights itself — holding down spending on base pay is the new normal.”

• A separate survey from jobs board CareerCast.com looking at jobs in the city of Seattle finds software engineer as ‘best job’ in the city, with salary growth in 2013 of 3.3%. However, of the top 12 jobs, those with the biggest pay rises of 3.5% were chiropractor and market research analyst.

The greater Seattle area is home to Microsoft and other digital players.