63% of UAE staff expecting pay rise

More than 60 percent of employees in the UAE expect to receive a pay rise this year, according to the latest MENA salary survey conducted by Bayt.com and YouGov. It said that despite 44 percent of employees having been unhappy with their last pay rise, 63 percent believe that their salaries are set to increase. On average, respondents claimed that they received a 6.63 percent raise in the past year - while stating that their cost of living increased by an average of 19.46 percent. The survey also said that six out of ten respondents in the UAE claimed that their current compensation was lower than that offered by other companies in the same industry. Out of the people expecting a raise this year, 25 percent said they were looking for an additional 15 percent or more. According to 85 percent of survey respondents, the cost of living in the UAE has increased in the last 12 months, with 43 percent believing that it has increased by 15 percent or more. Food and beverage was seen to have increased the most, according to four out of ten respondents, followed by rent (29 percent). A majority (74 percent) said they believed the cost of living would continue to rise in the coming year. Just over a third of respondents (37 percent) said they were able to save more than 15 percent of their monthly salary, although a further quarter said they were unable to save anything at all. "The survey's results suggest that companies are still feeling the effects of the economic downturn, as they are generally not fully catering to the financial expectations of their employees or to their employees' perceptions of the rising cost of living across the region," said Suhail Masri, vice president of sales, Bayt.com. More than half of survey respondents (51 percent) said they believed that salaries in the UAE were increasing either "marginally" or "moderately". Data for the survey was collected online from March 1-13. Results are reported on a base of 16,067 respondents across the MENA region.