Professional Salaries in Asia on the way up

3rd June 1996

The latest Hay Compensation Report has reported high real salary increases for executives in some Asian countries. Professionals in oil. chemical and pharmaceutical firms recieved the highest wage increases of 10.5% in 1995. Following in second place were executivesin the manufacturing and banking sectors who received the highest net gains of 9.6% and 9.5% respectively. Bonuses have also increased to just under 3 months.

Comparative data is reproduced below:

Executive Salary Growth Asia

Country	Salary Increase	CPI	Real Increase
Singapore	8.3%	1.3%	7.0%
Malaysia	9.5%	3.4%	6.1%
South Korea	10.9%	5.1%	5.8%
Thailand	13.1%	7.4%	5.7%
Taiwan	7.9%	3.7%	4.2%
Japan	7.9%	-0.4%	3.7%
Hong Kong	10.0%	6.6%	3.4%
Indonesia	13.0%	10.0%	3.0%
Philippines	12.6%	11.2%	1.4%

Singapore remains the place to be for real salary increases, where a tight job market adds impetus. Hong Kong salaries attracted smaller increases. Further grist to the mill of those that argue that Singapore is heading to price itself out of new business, even though the World Competitiveness Index results say different. Given that Singapore salaries are starting to approach the trendsetter of the last decade (Hong Kong), it is certainly food for thought.