Your Salary Just Might Get a Six-Percent Bump Next Year, According to a Study

If you're still at your job next year, you just might get an increase of up to six percent in your salary.  

According to the 2019 Philippines Total Remuneration Survey commissioned by Mercer, a human resources consulting firm, the salary increase next year is forecast to grow to six percent from 5.5 percent in 2019. Inflation rate, meanwhile, is projected to drop to 3.3 percent next year from this year’s figure of 3.8 percent.

Employees working in the consumer goods, energy and high tech industries are predicted to have the highest salary increases at six percent.

The Total Remuneration Study is Mercer’s flagship annual compensation and benefits benchmarking study that “identifies key remuneration trends and predicts hiring and salary increase.” As many as 433 companies from various industries participated in the study.

On the flip side, only about 45 percent of the companies surveyed said they were planning to hire new blood in 2020, a decline from the 50 percent in 2019. The survey said most organizations are focusing on “upskilling” and retaining key talent, although some 66 percent of companies in the Philippines don’t have a formal retention policy in place.

“While the country’s population is young with a median age of 24 years, workplaces are increasingly becoming multigenerational, as Generation Z steps into their first jobs and joins Millennials, Generation X, and Baby Boomers at work,” said Floriza Molon, career business leader at Mercer Philippines. “At the same time, the rise of the gig economy is growing demand for flexible work arrangements. These emerging realities challenge companies to have more compelling and differentiated value propositions, increase pay transparency, and rethink pay for performance, so they can attract, retain, and manage talent.”

The survey also revealed that for the first half of 2019, the voluntary attrition rate across industries is at 6.2 percent, with the logistics industry in the Philippines having the highest involuntary turnover rate at 7.1 for the second quarter. For comparison, the full-year attrition rate in 2018 stood at 10.9 percent, with the Shared Services and Outsourcing (SSO) industry having the highest voluntary turnover rate of 14.6 percent. Aerage years of service stood at three years.

Although employees cited a variety of reasons for leaving the companies they work for, the top three reasons for employees leaving their organization are competitive pay, manager interaction, and a lack of clear career path and job security. This is according to the Mercer Asia Pulse Survey 1H 2019 and 2019 Global Talent Trends Study.

“As the pace of change accelerates and we enter into this new world of work, companies should rethink how they can be future fit by putting their people at the heart of the change,” said Puneet Swani, senior partner and career business leader for the international region at Mercer. “Whether embracing digitalization, building competencies and skills needed for future competitive advantage or creating the right work environment and culture, changing the way organizations invest in their employees will yield a greater return for the business far into the future.”