GCC salaries climb by 9%

Private sector salaries in GCC countries grew at an average of 9% over the last year, according to a new study released today.

Oman showed the biggest jump, with basic salaries rising from 5.6% to 11% over the one-year period to August 2007, despite the labour market's extremely turbulent year, figures from the GulfTalent.com survey revealed.

The growth is driven in part by a 15% pay rise for the country's public sector employees, a statement from the Middle Eastern online recruitment firm said.

The pay of UAE professionals increased by 10.7% against 10.3% last year, while in Qatar wages rose by 10.6%, marginally lower than last year's figure of 11.1%.

However with the UAE's rising cost of living exceeding pay increases over the last few years, many expatriates have seen a fall in their net disposable incomes, the report found.

Of the UAE-based expatriates surveyed in the study, 41% reported making no savings on their income, the highest figure in the Gulf.

The company's third annual survey of regional salary trends also showed Bahrain pay rises accelerated to 8.1% from 6.4% last year, while Kuwait was virtually unchanged at 7.9% against 8.0% last year.

Saudi Arabia saw an increase to 7.7% from 6.5% the previous year.

According to GulfTalent.com, the region's salary increases are attributed to continued economic growth and intense competition, as well as spiralling living costs, particularly Qatar and the UAE.

Other drivers of pay increase are large pay rises for government employees and the continuing depreciation of dollar-pegged regional currencies, which reduce the value of Gulf compensation packages for European expatriates, putting further upward pressure on salaries.

"Kuwait's decision earlier this year to drop the US dollar peg and the subsequent 3% appreciation of its currency are increasing the competitiveness of Kuwaiti salaries relative to its neighbours and may intensify the pressure on other GCC countries to follow suit," the report said.

Continued economic growth and rising salaries in India - traditionally the main supplier of expatriate workforce to Gulf countries - is also driving pay rises in the region to retain employees.

Construction, banking and energy sectors saw the highest pay rises across the GCC over the last year. Healthcare and education registered the lowest increases.

Among job categories, engineers and finance staff received the biggest pay rises, followed by human resource professionals in third place, the report said.

GulfTalent.com's study was based on a survey of 18,000 professionals in the six GCC countries, as well as interviews with regional business leaders and human resource managers.

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READERS' COMMENTS

Rise in Salary
Posted by Glad2Know, UAE on Wednesday 24 October 2007 at 12:00 UAE time


I guess this is only for locals and Expats still have to suffer... Would it be good for all fair policies with the locals.. We love UAE and Dubai Govt, we still wanted to work for Dubai as it is best place in World, but some practises seems to be unfair i.e. paying the salaries to the Local community v/s Expats specially from Asian region. 
 
Please Govt/Human Rights Bodies please do the needful. We wanted people of UAE to be One, as its says  
One World, One Country

GCC Pay Hike
Posted by mumeenchowdhury@yahoo.com on Monday 1 October 2007 at 11:00 UAE time


These pay hikes are mere statistics only and truly applicabale to Western expats. Poor subcontinental expats receive nothing. As mentioned in your report, the main increases came from increase of public service staff. These are all GCC nationals, not expats.

Kuwait Airways Pay Rise
Posted by mumeenchowdhury@yahoo.com on Monday 1 October 2007 at 10:00 UAE time


We also learnt previously that the previous Management had approved a 35% salary rise effective from Jun/07 favor only Kuwaiti staff. Is this another increase for the Kuwaiti staff who are totally unproductive. Today KAC's wooes are for such unproductive staff only. When will the salary rise come to expatriate staff who are the core productive staff? Will KAC New Management consider rewarding expatriate staff adequately as well!

WOW
Posted by The Thinker, Dubai, United Arab Emirates on Sunday 30 September 2007 at 14:00 UAE time


Salaries climb by 9%. WOW, I love the way they drive hope in the region when people are actually moving away due to the dollar burden on the local currency. I am sure that anyone who reads this will recheck his package if he really got a 9% hike or 59% reduction in savings due to the high cost of living accompanied with imported inflation caused by the dollar. 
 
Long lives fake hopes to the hopefuls. There are always the hopefuls who would believe such statistics.

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