Asia-Pac workers expect pay increases next year
Chuang PeckMing
The Business Times
Tuesday, 20 October 2009
With the
economy bouncing back,
salaries in the Asia-Pacific are set for
bigger jumps next year to forestall job hopping, as bosses return to staff-poaching to
meet rising orders, says a recent poll by HR Business Solutions (HRBS).
Regional pay hikes in 2010, including in Singapore, are anticipated to be on average
50% higher than they were in 2009, when the worst global recession since the 1929 Great Depression led to cuts or freezes in pay, or minimal salary increases.
'Driving the optimistic outlook is the improved economic growth, with all countries'
GDP in better shape in 2009
than earlier forecast, and with
positive growth for
all countries come
2010,' said Elaine Ng, Hong Kong-based HRBS' managing partner.
The Asian Development Bank last month upgraded its growth forecast for Asia in 2010, from an earlier number of 6.0% to 6.4%. It also expects the region to grow 3.9% this year, up from its projection of 3.4% in March.
According to the HRBS poll, covering 954 companies in 19 locations, pay packages in the Asia-Pacific region will rise by an average 4.8% next year, compared with a 3.2% gain this year. Pay in Singapore will go up 2.8%, up from 1.6%, a HRBS poll of 90 companies here shows.
'Among 19 economies,
Singapore is ranked to have the seventh biggest
pay increase for 2010,' said Ms Ng, a Singaporean based in Hong Kong. 'This is
75% more than the average in 2009.'
Pakistan is likely to see the biggest jumps in pay averaging 9.6% next year, according to the HRBS poll. It is followed by Vietnam and India, with projected pay hikes of 8.5% and 8% respectively. Pay in Macau is expected to go up only 1.8%, but still better than the miserly 0.3% pay rise posted this year.
Salary increases in Japan (1.9%), Hong Kong (2.3%) and New Zealand (2.3 per cent) will also be low, according to the poll.
HRBS's poll results came on the heels of a similar poll taken by consultancy firm Watson Wyatt, which shows that companies have revised their overall salary increase budgets for 2010 from 2.5% in July to 3.2% currently. After taking into account salary freezes, the average salary hike in 2009 stood at 1.3%; the estimate for next year is 3.3%.
The HRBS poll indicates that employees in the healthcare industry are expected to enjoy the largest pay rises - 3.5% on average - next year, while workers in the semiconductor industry here will take home only 2% more in pay.
With the economic upturn, employers are generally worried that the staff-poaching war will hot up again as demand increases with more business, Ms Ng said. 'While average attrition rate for the first half of 2009 has been low, this is expected to increase as the market heats up,' she said. 'Hence employers are setting aside more merit pay increase budgets for next year.'
Besides, as most companies shift away from a wage freeze, employees will be clamouring for a decent pay rise in 2010, Ms Ng said.
According to the HRBS poll, companies implementing salary freezes in Singapore will drop from 51% in 2009 to 16% next year. And 84% of those polled will hike pay in 2010, up from 46.7% in 2009.
The poll also shows that average attrition across the Asia-Pacific region plunged from 13.3% in 2008 to 5.9% in the first half of 2009, after cutbacks in job openings because of the global economic slump.
Singapore's average resignation rate tumbled from 16.7% in 2008 to 6.2% in the first half of 2009, a two-thirds drop.