UAE employees expect double digit pay hikes in 2014

After years of nondescript increments, UAE employees are eyeing a windfall in salary hikes this year. A majority of professionals in the workforce claim to have received nothing or only marginal increments last year even as official statistics show that the cost of living went up as compared to the year before.

Despite the poor show seen on the pay front in 2013, these very employees are hopeful about 2014 and believe that fatter hikes are bound to come their way. These could be as high as 15 per cent, as believed by a third (32 per cent) of UAE respondents to a poll.

The latest Mena salary survey conducted by job portal Bayt.com and market research agency, YouGov suggests that expectations of a pay-hike in the UAE are high this year despite the fact that 44 per cent of those surveyed said they didn’t receive anything in 2013 and 46 per cent are dissatisfied with their current salary.

Suhail Masri, VP of Sales, Bayt.com, believes “that salaries are not consistently keeping pace with the rising cost of living in the UAE. This seems to be a general trend across the Mena region that companies must address if they want to win today’s increasingly intense war for talent.”