NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - American workers on average are bracing for yet another year of mediocre raises, a survey said on Wednesday.

Salary.com, an employment data tracking Web site, said salaries would rise by 3.7 percent in 2005, only slightly more than the average 3.6 percent wage growth rate posted in 2004.

Still, it is the second straight year that average pay raises have increased.

Average salary increases bottomed out at a five-year low in 2003 at 3.4 percent, after rising as high as 4.4 percent in 2001, according to Salary.com.

Although base pay levels are expected to increase slightly over last year, experts told Salary.com that the long-term compensation outlook for employees is strong with regard to bonus pay.

Seventy-seven percent of organizations use "variable compensation," up from 66 percent in 2001.