Salaries are expected to rise by an average of 4.6 per cent in the UAE in 2017, according to a survey.
As inflation has risen by an average of 4 percent in the emirates in the past two years, salaries have risen for employees across all industry sectors.
Pay was up by 4.9 per cent this year, according to Willis Towers Watson’s latest Salary Budget Planning Study.
The report was compiled from 6,500 responses received from companies across 100 countries in February and March 2016. It provides salary increase budget information for a selection of economies across the globe, as well as projected inflationary and country GDP movements over the same period.
In 2017, Lebanon is expected to see the region’s highest increase with 5.4 percent, followed by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait at 5 percent and Qatar at 4.8 percent.
Laurent Leclère, Willis Towers Watson’s senior consultant and data services lead for the Middle East, said: “There are many factors that affect the employee attraction and retention such as the work environment, the managers they work with, health and insurance programs. The top factor, however, is the compensation that would also drive the employees’ performance.”
The report also highlights countries in which real pay differs significantly to the regional average across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Lebanon tops this list at 7.1 percent, whilst Zambia has the lowest at minus-13.6 percent. For Central and Eastern Europe, Poland is highest with a 3.1 percent real-pay increase projected for 2016, while Kazakhstan is lowest at minus-5.1 percent.
On a global level, the report shows employees in Asian countries are predicted to benefit from some of the highest payrises with a regional average real-pay increase of 3.8 percent, followed by EMEA at 1.9 percent and Latin America at 1.8 percent. North America has some of the lowest projected increases at an average of 1.6 percent.
The General Industry Compensation Survey Report, which includes actual and target amounts paid for all employee salaries, allowances and bonuses, suggests that a similar rate of salary growth is likely to be maintained into 2017. But the research reveals that pay growth could be greater for certain skilled jobs with a smaller talent pool such as digital professionals.
Leclère said: “In an increasingly global and fast-moving talent market, effective use of the company’s salary budget should be high on reward professionals’ agendas. Identifying key talent, for not only technical skilled roles but also for the skills necessary for succession planning, is essential to the long-term health of any company. By segmenting and differentiating to meet organisational and employee needs it is possible to ensure companies are offering a total rewards packages that employees value and that will better its chances of retaining and engaging top talent.”
Follow us on
