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29 March 2024

Should UAE residents expect bigger salary hikes in 2017?

Published
By Shuchita Kapur

Employees in the UAE may get a pay hike of 4.6 per cent in 2017. This is according to a salary budget planning study released by Willis Towers Watson.

“The inflation rate in the UAE during the past two years has been an average of 4 per cent; however, there has been an increase in the pay for employees across all industry sectors,” reads the report.

For the region, Willis Towers Watson projects an increase of 4.6 per cent. Lebanon is expected to have the highest increase in pay growth (5.4 per cent), followed by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait (5 per cent), Qatar (4.8 per cent).

“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, etc. The top-most factor, however, is the compensation that would also drive the employees’ performance,” says Laurent Leclère, Senior Consultant and Data Services Lead for the Middle East at Willis Towers Watson.  

“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,” added Leclère.

A previous report from online recruitment firm Gulf Talent, stated that hikes were very much variable on the industry that employees work for.

For example, retail has had highest pay rises in the UAE and the GCC, as per the firm. This particular industry experienced the highest average pay rises in 2015, thanks to growing demand and overall stability of the sector.

Construction and banking, despite a bit of slowdown, registered healthy pay rises at 6.1 and 6 per cent, respectively, as companies sought to remain competitive and retain key specialist staff.

Hospitality saw the lowest salary growth at 3.7 per cent, owing in part to the decline in visitor traffic from Russia and European countries as a result of their weaker currencies.