Recent prediction reveals that starting salaries of professional roles could have a 4.1% increase next year. 

The 2016 Salary Guides from Robert Half shows that among the five fields tracked the expected salary for professional roles could increase on average by that rate in 2016, with the technology sector to gain higher pay grades in its 5.3% expected increase base pay.

Finance and Accounting sector trail that by 4.7%, followed by Creative and Marketing sector and Administrative and Office Support sector tied at 3.8% increase, and the Legal sector at 3.1% increase.

Robert Half senior executive director Paul McDonald says that "organizations continue to compete fiercely for skilled talent, particularly in the areas of big data, compliance and mobile applications development and with that managers who keep current on the latest salary and hiring trends can create more attractive job offers and improve their retention efforts."

So if you want to keep the brightest and youngest employees working for you, you should hand out some significant raises in the new year, suggests Inc.

"It's a wake-up call for employers that don't think that they need to pay 4 percent and 5 percent annual increases," McDonald added. "If they're just giving cost-of-living increases, they're losing talent."

The study analyzed pay data of over 750 jobs, from more than 1,000 US companies.

But a different study reveals a much lower pay raise for workers in the year 2016. Towers Watson, a global professional services company, pay raises are expected to hold steady for the next year. Their study with 1,100 respondents revealed that employers plan to increase salary by 3%.

According to North America practice leader, Sandra McLellan, the 3% pay raises became the new norm in US companies.

"While most organizations are finding the talent they need at current salary levels, we are seeing more employers prioritizing how their salary budgets are being spent, especially in light of their ongoing difficulty in attracting and retaining top performers or employees with critical skills."