UAE employees accept promotions without hike

Getting a promotion often means a better office, more responsibility, bigger perks, climbing up the hierarchy ladder and – most importantly – getting a substantial pay raise. But these rules may not apply to each promotion that you may get now as many employers in recent times are giving promotions – which means added work and responsibilities sans the material compensation that comes with it.

According to experts, this is a phenomenon that has picked up in the last few years due to the economic scenario that companies find themselves in.  

“I think that over the last few years there have been many cases where employers have sought to get more productivity out of their existing workforce and that has included promoting people or giving them additional responsibilities without an accompanying pay rise or with only a very modest increase. In a lot of cases employees have accepted this in return for job security and the added experience that they can gain,” Cliff Single, Commercial Manager at BAC Middle East told Emirates 24|7.

Experts opine that there is no clear black or white answer to this and depends on individual cases. “It is true that in general, it is possible that there is an enrichment of duties without leading immediately to a salary increase.  However, this is rare with senior executives, and most of the times, temporary,” Konstantina Sakellariou, Partner, Marketing & Operations Director at Stanton Chase told this website.

“Given a temporary perspective, executives do agree.  If however, in a company this becomes a rule without ever leading to an increased remuneration, then obviously there is dissatisfaction that will possibly lead to low retention rates,” she adds further.

However, there are some in the industry who believe that getting promotions with a pay hike happens only in the rarest of circumstances. “It is very unusual - almost always promotions are accompanied with pay rises - even if the rise is nominal,” says Hasnain Qazi, Middle East Business Manager at Huxley Associates.

Many employees confirmed to this website that this is somewhat becoming common after the recession.

"My company wants to reward employees for taking on heavier workloads but aren't able to offer immediate raises due to budget constraints. Since the job market is far different from what it used to be during the boom years the employees are accepting this,” said an employee working with a company in Media City.

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