Don't raise expectations for merit pay.(Chicago Tribune)

Remember last year when you complained loudly that you only got a 4 percent raise?

Today, with salary freezes and salary reductions, that sounds like an awful lot of money.

Leaner and meaner merit increases are a result of an economy that was sliding even before the horrifying events of Sept. 11 _ and after that date there weren't many reports of a higher percentage for wage increases.

A survey after Sept. 11 of 143 U.S. companies by Towers Perrin, a management and human resource consulting firm based in New York, shows that 59 percent of the executives polled said they're "reducing their merit budgets for all categories of employees to increases …