Nearly two-thirds of UAE employees are confident of a pay rise this year – despite nearly half of those questioned in a new poll admitting they didn’t see any kind of raise last year.
A whopping 63 per cent think they’re in line for bank-balance boosting pay increases in the next 12 months, and a quarter of them see their salary shooting up by 15 per cent or more, according to a survey carried out by pollster YouGov and jobs website Bayt.com.
“The survey respondents’ belief that there is an increase – however small – in salaries is a positive sign for the future,” said Sundip Chahal, chief executive of YouGov. And the optimism was echoed by the responses of employees to 7DAYS in Dubai yesterday.
“Yes, of course I’ll be getting a pay rise,” said Philip Moral, who works at UAE lender Mashreq. “Every day is not Christmas. When everyone is doing their job right, you deserve a pay rise.” Mortgages man Muhammad Fahad Amir, of Standard Chartered Bank, was honest enough to admit however that his bank-balance isn’t going to be getting too much fatter this year.
“I don’t expect one,” said Amir. “I got a pay rise in 2011 and because of the market, business is hard at the moment. If I’m not getting business, then I don’t think I deserve a rise.”
But he does he believe he’ll be one of those celebrating a 15 per cent pay boost next year. Amir added: “I’d like to think I’d get round about 15 to 20 per cent for 2013.”
Interestingly, six out of 10 surveyed in the survey stated their current compensation is lower than that offered by other companies in their industry. A worrying 44 per cent also claimed to have been either unhappy – or indeed very unhappy – with the last pay rise they received.
Some 37 per cent said they saved more than 15 per cent of their monthly salary – though one-in-four admitted being unable to save any money at all. Almost two out of five expats said the managed to repatriate more than 15 per cent of their salary.
