U.S. companies' budgets for salary increases in 2010 fell to their lowest level in more than two decades, The Conference Board reported today.

The 2010 median forecast of salary budgets for increases is 2.8% for all employee groups, the lowest level in the 25-year history of The Conference Board's annual salary increase budgets survey.

In addition, changes to salary structures (changes to minimum, midpoints and maximums of pay scales) to account for changes in cost of living and other things aren't expected to top 2.0%, according to the survey. That's below The Conference Board's forecasted inflation rate of 2.6%.

A recovery in compensation is likely a few years away, Gad Levanon, associate director of macroeconomic research at The Conference Board, said in a statement. "In the previous three recessions, compensation began accelerating only several years after employment bottomed," Levanon said.

The survey included 285 U.S. organizations.