KUWAIT CITY, Feb 18: Salary satisfaction is running low across the Middle East, with just 7% of residents in Kuwait highly satisfied with their remuneration, according to recent research conducted by the Middle East’s number one job site — Bayt.com in conjunction with regional research specialists YouGov. The picture around the Gulf is similarly bleak with each of the GCC countries registering the same level of dissatisfaction regarding their salary. The picture around the region in terms of what level of salary people receive varies widely the survey found. The UAE tops the table in terms of the biggest earners, with 20% earning between $5,000 and $10,000 each month, and 7% earning $10,000 and above. Bahrain and Qatar had similar levels of high earners, with 22% and 19% respectively earning between $5,000 and $10,000 each month, and 7% each earning more than $10,000 each month. Kuwait’s employees are disparately divided in terms of their salaries. 21% earn up to $1,000 per month and 21% earn between $1,001 and $2,000 per month; 16% earn between $2,001 and $3,000; and 19% earn between $3,001 and $5,000. The very highest earners are in a minority, with just 12% earning between $5,000 and $10,000 and just 4% of employees in Kuwait earning over $10,000.

The lowest paid residents in the region are in the North African countries of Algeria, Egypt and Morocco. 54% of residents in Algeria earn under $500 per month, and just 4% were found near the top of the scale earning between $5,000 and $10,000 per month. In both Egypt and Morocco, 47% of residents receive under $500 per month, with 2% in each country earning $5,000-$10,000 per month and 1% in each country earning over $10,000 per month.  The Middle East Salary Survey, conducted annually by Bayt.com and YouGov, is designed to look at the current levels of wages and benefits in the region, and to gauge employee opinion and satisfaction levels vis-a-vis the salaries they receive, and how these have kept pace with the cost of living.

“Conducting a wide-scale survey across the Middle East by asking what level of remuneration an employee receives and their satisfaction with it helps to paint a very clear picture of economic conditions inside a particular country. The relevance of such data increases manifold during a time like this — a global economic crisis — as it gives an up-to-date indication of employee sentiment, which can be used to compare people’s attitudes and opinions during other financial cycles,” commented Bayt.com’s Regional Manager, Amer Zureikat.

Survey
The data for the Salary Survey is collated in part by looking at whether average salary increases were in-line with the average rise in the cost of living. The picture was very clear that the average salary increase did not reflect the rise in the cost of living across all of the countries. In Kuwait, respondents indicated that living costs had increased by 32% while the average salary increase was just 12%. The biggest disparity in the increase in cost of living and salary raise is in Jordan, where salaries increased by 15% compared to the 39% increase in living costs, which backs up previous research about the Levant region being hardest hit by salaries, vis-à-vis cost of living. Algeria and Tunisia recorded the smallest margins in terms of disparity: with average salary raises of 12% and 9% respectively and the average cost of living increasing by 26% and 23%.

The survey also looked at what percentage of their salary people manage to save each month. The majority of all respondents manage to save between 1 and 5%.  Significantly a quarter of all respondents said they manage to save none. The biggest savers were residents in Oman, Qatar and Bahrain, with 33%, and 30% respectively saving more than 21% of their monthly salary. Overall, the best savers are in Bahrain and Oman, where 83% of residents save at least some of their salary. Those saving the least are in Jordan, where just 54% of residents saved some of their monthly wages. A quarter of employees in Kuwait say they save none of their salary, while one fifth save more than 21% of their salary.

“These figures reveal that even though some people receive much higher salaries in some countries than others, it doesn’t correlate that these high earners save more money, which might have been expected. This could be explained by the disparity between cost of living and salary increases, or by the fact that the high earners seek a lifestyle that matches their high salary,” said Nassim Ghrayeb, CEO, YouGov. Interestingly, the survey highlighted the level of salary satisfaction in terms of industry. The most highly satisfied industry workers were found in the oil, gas and petrochemicals sector, which is traditionally known to be one of the most profit-generating sectors in the region, especially with the fact that oil/ gas is one of the Gulf region’s largest exports. Despite the massive fall and subsequent stability of oil prices over the last year, salaries within the industry have seemingly been unaffected. The industries which provided least salary satisfaction to workers were education and academia, government and civil service and transport and travel.

Hardest
The study additionally revealed that across the Middle East, 77% of residents feel they have been hard hit by the global economic crisis, with a quarter of people in Kuwait stating they have felt no effects. Residents in Egypt — 81% — were the hardest hit amongst the surveyed countries, while least affected was Oman, with more than a third — 37% — stating they have not been affected. Asked their feelings about the current economic climate in terms of the labour market, almost a quarter of respondents said they feel quite pessimistic, with an equal 16% citing that they are either optimistic about economic growth and plenty of jobs being available; that jobs in their country of residence will be more competitive in the future; and that companies will continue to recruit but salaries will continue to decline. Egypt and the UAE were the gloomiest countries surveyed with 30% and 29% feeling pessimistic about the future closely followed by Kuwait at 28%, while Oman and Bahrain’s respondents were brightest, with 23% and 22% stating their optimism for economic growth and greater job availability.

“Recruitment industry professionals and organisations like Bayt.com as well as other industry stakeholders like major industry leaders find this type of timely and localized information highly beneficial as it provides a good starting point for identifying the trends that are driving these current sentiments, thus allowing them to focus or change their business strategies accordingly to address employees’ concerns,” concluded Zureikat.  Data for the 2008/2009 Salary Survey was collected online in December 2008 and January 2009 with 13,881 respondents across the UAE, KSA, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria. Males and females of all nationalities aged over 20 years were included in the survey.

By Bayt.com & YouGov