Employees can expect a lower pay rise and a smaller year-end bonus this year as companies take a cautious stance when China's economy slows, an industry survey showed yesterday.

Companies predicted a 10.1 percent increase in payroll this year, down from last year's 11.6 percent, Towers Watson, a human resource consulting firm, said yesterday in the survey. The firm said that workers may expect a year-end bonus of 3.1 times equivalent of their monthly salary, down from 3.4 times in 2011.

Earlier this month, the Chinese government cut this year's economic growth target from a long-established 8 percent to 7.5 percent.

In response, companies will adopt measures such as semi-annual salary adjustments to motivate their staff as well as increase the budget for periodic salary adjustments to reward outstanding employees, the consultancy said.

These "secret weapons" will not increase costs but utilize the existing resources better, Towers Watson said.

The results were collated from the survey of 300 enterprises in various industries, such as banking, securities, insurance, fund management, real estate, consumer goods and manufacturing.