Asian nations continue to dominate the global top twenty highest real wage increases in the forecast for 2020, with 13 of the top twenty, and all but one of the top 10, according to ECA International’s Salary Trends Report.
India tops the rankings for 2020, where employees are forecast to receive a 5.4% real salary increase.
Steven Kilfedder, production manager at ECA International, said: “Once again, the vast majority of the highest real salary increases in the world are predicted to be seen in Asia. The average salary increase in the APAC region after inflation is forecast to be 3.2%, significantly higher than the global average of 1.4% and nearly three times the European average of 1.1%.
“This is a trend that we have seen for many years now due to low inflation and rising productivity in many Asian economies, resulting in salaries growing rapidly compared to other regions.”
Uncertainty in the Middle East
He also reports that high inflation continues to affect African pay packets and uncertainty in Middle East continues, while despite inflation forecasted to increase 10% in 2020, employers in Egypt are expected to offer employees a real salary increase of 2.8%. This follows a year in which wages shrunk 0.7% in 2019.
In the Middle East and Saudi Arabia real salary increases are forecast to reach just 2.4% on average in 2020, a long way short of the 5.8% increase that was seen for this region in 2019.
“Inflation has risen significantly throughout the Middle East as the stable commodity prices boost domestic demand. This has seen Saudi Arabia, UAE and Qatar all drop out of the global top ten as rising inflation cuts into the real salaries of workers in the region,” said Kilfedder.
Top 10 forecasted real salary increases – Global
1 India 5.4%
2 Vietnam 5.1%
3 Indonesia 4.6%
4 Cambodia 4.2%
5 Thailand 4.1%
6 Ukraine 4.1%
7 Philippines 3.7%
8= China 3.6%
8= Korea Republic 3.6%
10 Bangladesh 3.4%
ECA, which stands for Employment Conditions Abroad International, has offices in London, New York City, Sydney and Hong Kong.
The company runs surveys throughout the year to enable clients to benchmark their management policy for expatriate employees.
