Salary Survey 2009

Welcome to the results of the Arabian Business Salary Survey 2009, where we reveal how much employees working in the Gulf region are being paid, ranked by industry, location and nationality.

Unlike last year's poll, which took place during a boom time for the Gulf, this year's questions, answered by more than 3,000 respondents during the month of January were posed at a time when firms were cutting back on their workforce and their budgets.

And it shows. Analysis of the results of our Arabian Business Salary Survey 2009 reveals it doesn't matter how much you earn or how senior your role is, there are no longer any guarantees about job security in the region.

A telling statistic reveals that four out of the top 10 earners who completed our survey - all on substantial six-figure monthly salaries (in US dollars) - admitted they were anxious about their job prospects. Regardless of your industry, it would seem, uncertainty reigns.

The nationality divide

When ranked by nationality, our data showed wages are as diverse as cultures.British expats working in GCC states, for example, earn more than double the salary of their Indian expat counterparts.

Employees from the UK who took part in our poll told us they earned an average of nearly $14,500 a month including all bonuses, commission and allowances, compared to the Indian average of just over $6,000. Across all respondents, the average salary was $8,857 a month.

Americans ranked top in the salary stakes, taking home an average salary of more than $19,000 a month. Australians came second, with an average salary of nearly $17,000, and South Africans took third place with a monthly pay packet of $16,152.

The Brits came in fourth ($14,478), with Canadians completing the top five positions with an average salary of $13,726.

Workers from the Philippines were the worst paid, according to our data, earning an average of $3,082 a month. The figure is almost half that of Syrians, who came second from bottom in the salary rankings.

Indian, Pakistani and Egyptian expatriates completed the bottom five rankings, earning $6,193, $6,649 and $6,343 respectively.

For the purposes of this particular analysis, a minimum of 50 responses were analysed for each nationality.

Bankers defy the downturn

Despite the shortage of liquidity in the Gulf's banking sector courtesy of the credit crunch, the industry's employees do not appear to have the same problem.

According to our data, banking is one of the best paid industries to be in, boasting an average salary (including all bonuses, commission and allowances) of nearly $16,000 a month. That was almost double the monthly pay packet of an average construction industry professional, more than 600 of whom told us that their average salary was just over $8,000.

While the real estate industry has been hard hit by the global slowdown, particulary in the UAE, those who are still in a job rank among the best paid, averaging out at $11,816 a month.

The top five best-paid industries in the Gulf also included healthcare, which took the top spot with an average salary of more than $20,000, finance and insurance ($11,902), and oil and gas ($10,523).

Pay rise in first half of 2008

The impact of the global economic crisis on the region, which started to take hold in September, is reflected in the responses of workers asked about pay rises.

Only 34 percent of employees working in the GCC received a pay rise during the second half of 2008.

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