UAE salary trends: Are you paid enough?

A salary that beats inflation and can therefore meet the rising cost of living can be one of the driving factors that motivate employees to stick to their employers.

If you consider this as one of the factors that makes people stay with their current employer, a majority of UAE employees seem to be satisfied with their salary levels.

According to the 2016 Bayt.com Middle East and North Africa Salary Survey, a slim majority (51 per cent) of UAE respondents claim the salary they earn is, at least to some extent, the main driver behind their loyalty to their company.

However, one-third (32 per cent) claimed their loyalty is not linked to the salary they receive.

Besides salary, long-term career advancement opportunities (40 per cent) and line manager (35 per cent) emerged as the most important factors that make employees stay put in their jobs.

The findings highlight that in the current salary structure, 60 per cent of UAE employees manage to repatriate a portion of their salary to their home country. However, 29 per cent of professionals in the UAE admit that they save nothing from their monthly salary.

“It is interesting to note that 61 per cent of Mena respondents manage to save a portion of their monthly income, with 58 per cent of those living outside their home country being able to repatriate a portion of their savings to their home country,” said Joao Neves, Research Director, YouGov.

“This is a good sign for both employers and jobseekers, as the ability to save and repatriate savings will impact other factors such as employee satisfaction and loyalty towards the company,” she added.

Looking at promotions and pay raises last year, around one in five (21 per cent) respondents in the UAE received a promotion, with two-thirds of them (62 per cent) receiving an accompanying salary increase.

At the same time, close to half of UAE respondents (46 per cent) said they did not receive a pay raise in 2015 at all, and 30 per cent of those who did were quite dissatisfied with their raise.

In fact, only 9 per cent of UAE respondents said their raise was above the inflation rate; 17 per cent said it was in line with the inflation rate, and 52 per cent said the raise they received was below the current rate of inflation, says the report.

Nevertheless, a good proportion of UAE employees are content with their current salaries.

A decent number (36 per cent) are very happy or modestly happy with their raise, and 10 per cent believe that the pay raise they received last year was fair in light of their contribution to the company.

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.