Pay rises are making a comeback in Asia Pacific

Pay rises are making a comeback in Asia Pacific, said Willis Towers Watson recently. 

Companies in the region plan to give employees larger rises next year as they recover from the economic fallout of the pandemic and face mounting challenges attracting and retaining employees, according to the latest Salary Budget Planning Report by the company.

As a fast-growing region, markets in APAC will see the highest 2022 pay rises, while countries in North America and Western Europe are expected to stay flat, and the rest of the regions taking longer to recover and stabilise, the firm pointed out. 

Report highlights

• Companies in APAC are projecting average salary increases of 5.3% for executives, management and professional employees, and support staff next year. 
• This is up from the average 4.9% increases employees were granted this year. 
• Emerging markets such as India at 8.8% and Indonesia at 6.5% are forecasting significant salary budget increases for 2022 compared with this year.
• With APAC expected to perform better than the rest of the world in trade, the overall manufacturing output across the region has also shown substantial recovery. 
• Strong foreign direct investment into the region along with the demand for technology, communication and 5G equipment, have created new demand and job opportunities across the High Tech and Media industries. 
• High Tech companies in the region are projecting the largest increases (5.5%) followed by Manufacturing (5.4%), Pharmaceutical and Health Sciences (5.2%) and Media companies (5.2%).

Average salary increases projected at 3.7% in Singapore for 2022
Close to 50% of companies in Singapore expect their business performance to be ahead of target this year and 47.3% to be in line with their business outlook for 2021, WTW pointed out. 

Employers in Singapore are expecting an average salary budget increase of 3.2% for 2021 and 3.7% for 2022, the firm added.

Companies in fintech, media, and pharmaceutical and health sciences reported the highest average salary budget increments at 4.2%, 4.0% and 4.4% respectively for next year, according to the report. 

Industries such as energy and natural resources indicated the lowest average salary budget increase at 3.1% for 2022, the report adds.