COMPENSATION & BENEFITS
Middle East - Qatar has eclipsed the UAE for highest paid salaries, with four of ten Qatar's professionals earning between US$3,001 and US$8,000 a month, compared to 37% of employees in the UAE.
According to the Middle East Salary Survey conducted by job site Bayt.com and regional research specialists YouGov Siraj, the Gulf region has the highest number of professionals earning top tier salaries. Around 12% and 10% of employees in Qatar and the UAE respectively earn more than US$8,000 each month. This follows by 7% in Bahrain, 6% in Kuwait and 3% in Saudi Arabia and Oman.
However, the numbers of employees who are highly satisfied with their salaries have declined with only 7% and 5% in Qatar and the UAE happy with what they are taking home. Slightly under a quarter of respondents across the Middle East also felt the average salary increase of 7% is not in tune with the higher costs of living. Syria's respondents felt the biggest disparity with a 19 percentage point gap.
Around 44% of the region's respondents on average did not receive a pay rise with 55% of respondents in the UAE and 59% in Kuwait the highest among the surveyed countries. For those who did receive a pay raise in the UAE, only 4% said they were very happy, 7% were very unhappy while 13% said they were unhappy. Just 6% agreed that their pay rise was fair, given the economic circumstances.
But despite the general unhappiness with pay rises, some respondents do believe they are better off than their peers from other cities in terms of their quality of life. In the UAE, 42% said they are better off than others, while 21% of respondents in Jordan on the other hand said they have the worst quality of life when compared to their peers.
"Employers and employees alike need to look at studies like this to help in gauging both what to pay and what to expect, respectively," Joanna Longworth, CMO for YouGov, said. "While they may be unhappy with their pay rise or the current economic conditions, in reality they still feel in a relatively good position."
Almost a quarter of respondents in the region added that they are optimistic that there will be robust economic growth in their country with more jobs available in a year's time. Unlike in 2009 when everyone was most pessimistic about the future, only 18% felt pessimistic about the future this year.
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