Survey: Some Malaysians can look forward to 10% hike or more

PETALING JAYA: Good news for emp­lo­­yees – Malaysia not only ranked second to China in salary increases in Asia, they can look forward to a pay rise of between 3% and 10% or more.

Under the newly released annual findings of the Hays Asia Salary Guide, 10% of employers in Malaysia intend to award more than 10% salary increases for the upcoming review to their employees.

Another 33% of employers will award between 6% and 10% in increments.

The majority, however, will give a hike of between 3% and 6% while 9% is set to offer less than 3% raise. Only 1% of employers will not increase salaries.

According to last year’s reviews, 3% of employers did not increase salaries of their workers; 9% gave less than 3%; 48% of employers raised between 3% and 6%; 31% of employers increased between 6% and 10%; 9% gave more than 10% in increment.

Each year, a survey is conducted by Hays to gather employers’ views on salary policy, recruitment trends and economic outlook.

A total of 2,361 organisations, representing 4,017,026 employees from across Asia, took part in the 2015 survey.

The salary guide also revealed that employers in Malaysia were using performance-related bonuses, in addition to salary increases, to reward their top performers this year.

Hays Asia managing director Christine Wright highlighted that there was a good chance employees had or would soon receive a competitive bonus if they and their company was performing well.

“The demand for highly skilled professionals is one reason why bonuses continue to remain popular. Employers who are unable to offer a significant salary increase to their top staff are also using bonuses as a way of rewarding and, hopefully, retaining their best people,” said Wright in a press release yesterday.