According to ECA International’s latest Salary Trends Survey, worldwide, salary increases are expected to fall from last year’s 6.2% average to around 4.7% as companies look for ways to cut costs in response to the global economic crisis. A quarter of the world's companies, and 40% in the United States, plan to freeze salaries this year, but employees in South America and India can look forward to robust rises, a global survey shows on Tuesday. Employees in Japan, Lithuania and Ireland will see the lowest pay rises, according to the survey of 53 countries by expatriate cost-of-living research company. In recession-hit Japan, half of companies plan to freeze salaries.