In India and China, the firms that are freezing pay are more likely to be local operations of multinational companies.

However, if the freeze continues for another year, then companies owned by foreign firms in India and China will see a significant weakening of their market positioning compared with state-owned enterprises and indigenous companies.

Regarding the public sector companies in India, Hay Group said "pay in the public sector remains relatively modest, even after these changes (even after implementing pay reviews), but increases of this magnitude will clearly skew Indian pay market data for some time to come."

Across the globe, salary freezes have become very common with employees in 36 per cent of companies facing salary freezes and 27 per cent of organisations are decreasing their staffing levels, the survey said adding that "many organisations which a year ago were having trouble filling vacancies are now having to resort to job cuts."

The survey, which covered 2,000 organisations from 88 countries across six continents, said "executive pay is likely to rise even less than that of their employees – and in practice many executives will receive significantly less than in previous years, as bonus pay-outs drop and the value of share-based payments is hit by stock market falls."