The Conference Board Annual Salary Increase Budget Survey shows that employers have already started to lower their salary budgets. The 2020 average for actual total salary increase budgets, including exempt, executive, and nonexempt salaried employees, decreased from 3.19 percent in 2019 to 2.60 percent in 2020. Many respondents indicated their budgets are not yet finalized due to uncertainty created by the COVID-19 crisis.