Singapore – Singapore employees are getting lower salary increments than their Asian counterparts.

According to ECA International’s Salary Trends Survey 2007/2008, this is an increase from last year’s 4.5% salary raise. However it is still below the regional average. Asian workers in the region are expected to be receiving increments of 7.3%, well above the global average of 5.9%.

“For a developed economy country such as Singapore this level of wage increase is high.” Lee Quane, general manager of ECA International said. “This can be explained partly by Singapore’s robust economic growth in 2007 and partly by the fact that companies are facing a relatively tight labour market, which looking into 2008 shows little sign of changing.”

Regionally, India and Vietnam are expected to see the biggest increases when compared to last year. In India the 14% salary rise is higher than last year’s 12.6% while Vietnam’s 10% shows an increase on 2007’s 8.5% salary increments. The Philippines is tipped to join India, Indonesia, Vietnam and China as the fifth Asian country seeing the largest salary increases in 2008. Japan remains at 3%, one of the region’s lowest salary increases this year.

Most Asian cities will also see lower rates of real wage increases, the difference between actual salary increases and inflation, in 2008 due to fast inflation growth in oil, food and accommodation costs.

“The combination of lower real wage increases, together with a relatively tight labour market in many Asian economies, will become a headache for companies seeking to attract and retain talented staff in 2008,” Quane said. “Companies will need to consider revising their forecast salary increases during 2008 or provide higher salary increases next year to make up for this year’s relatively low increase in real incomes.”