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29 March 2024

Know your worth: UAE jobs, salaries in finance in 2015

Survey, which polled over 200 companies this month, reveals that sectors such as banking & finance, retail, hospitality and healthcare express the highest need. (File)

Published
By Shuchita Kapur

If you are looking for a job in accounting and finance in the UAE or want to go ahead and negotiate with your boss a long overdue pay rise, read on to know your market worth.

Knowing the salary you can get for the same or similar job in the industry is a good benchmark before you head to the boss’ room to argue your case whether you're being paid fairly or not.

It’s also worth knowing whether your skills will be in demand if you were to fall out of favour after negotiating with your manager.

If you’re a professional in accounting and finance, you are already in demand this year and this is likely to go up in 2015.

Experts at Robert Half UAE, a recruitment firm in the country, see increased levels of demand in this sector.

According to them, accounting and finance recruitment has returned to pre-recessionary levels, with companies expanding existing teams as well as investing in new initiatives.

If you are in the field of systems implementations and commercial/ business partnering, while staying focused on their risk and compliance activities, you sure will have many jobs to choose from if you are unhappy with your current one.

Finance professionals are also expected to ‘have it all’ to secure the best roles, say the experts at the recruitment firm.

Specific skills that are in demand right now include strong commercial and analytical skills with effective communication, including the ability to speak Arabic.

Software knowledge is also important as confidence in the economy is rekindling stalled IT projects including investments in Oracle or SAP upgrades. These skill sets are what makes jobseekers sought after by employers.

The salary guide 2015 released by Robert Half also reveals that decision makers in this industry want to increase their head count in the coming months.

A good percentage (43 per cent) of UAE CFOs plan to increase finance team salaries for existing staff by an average of 6 per cent, while 27 per cent will increase and 51 per cent will maintain bonuses.

Here are finance and accounting roles with highest and lowest growth between 2014 and 2015, based on increases for new, starting salaries in UAE dirhams per annum.
 

Top three

2014 average (Dh)

2015 average (Dh)

% change

Audit manager (large firm)

467,389 - 696,033

485,754 - 872,337

6.9%

Finance manager (large firm)

406,784 - 661,140

435,250 - 702,461

6.5%

Assistant credit controller (large firm)

144,165 - 202,015

150,593 - 217,625

6.4%

 

Bottom three

2014 average (Dh)

2015 average (Dh)

% change

Payroll manager (SME)

266,292 - 366,381

268,129 - 367,300

0.4%

Tax manager (large firm)

300,267 - 478,408

301,186 - 481,163

0.5%

Management accountant < 5 years (large firm)

254,355 - 399,438

257,110 - 400,357

0.6%