INTERNATIONAL REWARD
Pay expected to outpace inflation in most countries
Employees in Venezuela can expect to receive pay increases of around 29% in 2004, according to a new study by Mercer Human Resource Consulting. But with inflation forecast to soar by nearly 37%, workers are likely to be worse off.
In contrast, average pay in most countries, including the UK and US, is predicted to increase by one to 3.5 percentage points above inflation. As many as 40 of the 63 countries covered in the survey fall into this category.
A minority of countries will have higher increases, including Bulgaria, Lithuania and Indonesia where employees are likely to receive pay rises of around 5%, 5% and 6.5% above inflation respectively.
Projected 2004 annual base pay increases and inflation rates -- ranked by projected pay above inflation
Top five ranked countries
| Forecasts for 2004 | |||
| Country | Average pay increases | Inflation | Pay above inflation |
| Indonesia | 13.0% | 6.5% | 6.5% |
| Bulgaria | 9.0% | 3.9% | 5.1% |
| Lithuania | 6.1% | 1.0% | 5.1% |
| South Korea | 7.5% | 3.0% | 4.5% |
| Taiwan | 4.5% | 0.6% | 3.9% |
| China | 5.3% | 1.4% | 3.9% |
| Chile | 6.3% | 2.5% | 3.8% |
Bottom five ranked countries
| Forecasts for 2004 | |||
| Country | Average pay increases | Inflation | Pay above inflation |
| Latvia | 3.2% | 3.0% | 0.2% |
| Slovakia | 7.0% | 7.0% | 0.0% |
| Estonia | 2.0% | 3.0% | -1.0% |
| Ukraine | 6.0% | 7.0% | -1.0% |
| Puerto Rico | 4.1% | 5.5% | -1.4% |
| Venezuela | 28.9% | 36.6% | -7.7% |
Want to know more?
Title: Global Compensation Planning Report 2004, Mercer Human Resource Consulting.
Methodology: The report examines economic, employment and pay trends in over 60 countries worldwide. Data on projected pay comes from a survey of multinational companies, while inflation data is mostly collected from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Pay statistics cover five levels of employees: operations, clerical, technical, managers and senior executives. The salary increase figures quoted above relate to the average of all employee categories.
Availability: Copies of Mercer's survey are available from client services, Mercer Global Information Services, Geneva, tel: +41 22 869 3000 or at www.mercerHR.com/globalcompensation
Mercer Human Resource Consulting "helps organisations create measurable business results through their people". It has more than 13,000 employees serving clients in some 40 countries worldwide. For more details jump to www.mercerhr.com.
Posted 10 November 2003