Salaries across the GCC stagnated in the last year due to dull economic conditions in the region, the 2017 Gulf Business salary survey has found.
The average Asian salary increased 1.57 per cent from $9,231 to $9,376, the average Arab salary was down 0.08 per cent from $11,787 to $11,778 and the average Western salary was up 0.22 per cent from $12,350 to $12,377.
Kuwait was the third weakest market in terms of pay rises with an average increase of 0.31 per cent seen across the groups – from $10,794 to $10,828.
Average Asian salaries in the country were up 0.34 per cent from $9,117 to $9,148, Arab salaries were up 0.38 per cent from $11,274 to $11,317 and Western salaries were up 0.24 per cent from $11,991 to $12,020.
Top 10 salaries in Kuwait
(All the amounts are monthly averages taken from Asian, Western and Arab expat salaries with data collated from Charterhouse Middle East and Nadia)
Chief executive officer/managing director – multinational: $34,271
Chief executive officer/managing director – local company: $22,178
Banking – treasury manager: $13,224
Information technology – manager: $12,097
Construction – project manager: $11,853
Legal – lawyer marketer/manager: $10,355
Banking – retail/personal banking manager: $9,625
Real estate – manager: $9,610
Banking – branch manager: $9,577
Healthcare – general practitioner/ manager: $9,416
According to Ian Giulianotti, director at Nadia, job security is being increasingly valued in the region as mass redundancies in some sectors and more modest salary offers reduce job hopping in comparison to recent years.
“If we talk about two or three years ago, the majority of people were looking to change their jobs for financial benefit, to improve the amount of money they had,” he said.
“At that time most of the candidates that were registering with us would be looking for a 20 to 30 per cent hike. Today they are looking for 5 per cent, and if they can get 10 per cent it’s a real miracle,” he added.
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