Only 39% of M’sian Employers Will Give Over 6% Pay Raise in 2018, Study Shows

Almost every time we have a performance review at work, we wait eagerly for our bosses to tell us whether we’re eligible for a pay raise. However, often the pay raise given doesn’t meet our expectations and it looks like this trend is increasing. Yikes! 

Source: hr asia media

Based on Malay Mail, Hays, a British recruiting company that has branches in 33 countries around the world, has said that if employers continue to fall short of employees’ expectations, many of them will leave the company. Hays said that they will be dissatisfied and eventually leave for better compensation elsewhere.

To paint a better picture, Hays has an annual salary guide and this year, they provided some valuable insights. The 2018 Hays Asia Salary Guide covers topics such as salary and recruiting trends where they surveyed more than 3,000 employers representing over six million employees in five markets. For Malaysia, they gathered employers from more than 15 industries to ask them about remuneration trends for 2018.

Source: straits times

Hays 2018 Asia Salary Guide reported that more than 50% of the respondents they surveyed answered that they expect at least a 6% increment this year. Go tell your boss okay? Despite these expectations, almost half of the employers gave a pay raise of between 3% and 6% only.

When asked, only 39% of the employers said that they plan to give salary increments of more than 6% to their staff. That’s a big difference! Hays said that this discrepancy means that more and more employees will be disappointed and will not remain loyal to the company. We need to feel rewarded too! 

Source: business times

“The growing salary expectations of candidates are being driven by a number of factors including the rising cost of living especially in our largest cities. In addition to this, many candidates are well aware of both Malaysia’s strong economy and the very low unemployment rate and so, they believe they can find another job if the salary increase awarded by their employer this year does not meet their expectations,” said Tom Osborne, regional director of Hays in Malaysia.

Not only that, Hays’ guide discovered that almost two of every three workers were looking for better opportunities as they were displeased with their current salary grade. A third of them wanted to change jobs in the immediate future and half of these people were already actively seeking for jobs.

Source: the independent

The purpose of the guide was to serve as a guideline to employers and employees regarding their remuneration package. “Our Guide is a warning to employers to reconsider salary plans particularly for candidates in hard to fill roles,” added Osborne.

Maybe you can drop a hint or two to your boss before it’s time for a salary review!

Also read: M’sians Need to Earn At Least RM2,700/Month to Live Comfortably, BNM Says