Despite difficult economic times, companies are finishing the trend of cutting or freezing salaries and are even starting to slowly increase pay and benefits.

Employment specialists say the growth is more cautious and selective than in the boom years leading up to the 2008 crash, but employees who have shown they are key personnel over the crisis period are now being rewarded with pay rises.

Ukraine Compensation and Benefits Survey 2010, conducted every year by global Big Four auditing firm Ernst and Young, estimates companies increased wages by 13-14 percent on average.

The first to be rewarded were top-performing managers.

"The percentage was more or less the same for different industries, but increases were a bit higher for top and senior management," noted Olena Veselkova, major consultant on human capital at Ernst and Young.

The survey notes a recovery in the labour market and growth in employees' wages.

In 2010, companies have "terminated cutting personnel and about one third of the companies, that participated in our surveys, had begun to recruit workers, especially middle management and professional staff".

In some cases there were even separate policies for key employees and top talents, and this kind of differentiation is growing with each passing year. And key employees earn the highest pay."

After the painful lessons of the economic downturn, the majority of companies have put a stop to the rash salary growth that ran from 2005 to the first half of 2008.

Most companies have intensions to raise wages in the next year, but the increases will be smaller.

Companies also started to rethink their approach toward hiring and retaining top employees and are now linking rewards more directly to performance.