As salary budgets have seemingly stabilized following three years of record lows, U.S. and Canadian workers and expecting to afford a 3 percent increase to the salary budget for all employees, according to the U.S. 2012-2013 National Salary Budget Survey conducted by Kenexa Compensation, a global provider of business solutions for human resources.

This estimated 3 percent growth in salary budgets matches the figure respondents report for 2012, an uptick from 2009 when salary budget levels dropped to 2.5 percent for executives and nonexempt employees and 2.8 for managers and exempt employees.

"Since increase budgets bottomed out in 2009, many organizations have been looking forward to the time when they would get back to normal," says Zahir Ladhani, head of Kenexa's Compensation's business unit. "With increase budgets in North America hovering around the 3 percent mark for two years running, it appears as though we have now achieved a new normal. Budgets such as these will continue to put pressure on organizations to ensure that they are paying competitively and retaining their top talent."