Intellasia News Services -- Salaries record highest rise in last five years: survey

Salaries record highest rise in last five years: survey
Source: 08-SEP-2008 Intellasia | Saigon Times Daily page 3
Sep 8, 2008 - 7:00:00 AM
Navigos Group, the leading recruiting and integrated human resource solutions provider in Vietnam, on Thursday released preliminary results of its Vietnam Salary Survey 2008 showing that average salaries have grown 19.5%, a five-year high.

The growth in salaries is much higher than in 2006 and 2007 when Vietnam's economy was rapidly growing but salaries increased by only 9% and 12.6% respectively in those years.

Navigos Group explained in a statement sent to the Daily that the results of the Vietnam Salary Survey 2008 Report were based on the analysis of data gathered from more than 180 companies representing 15 major industries from April 2007 to March 2008.

The tracked industries include manufacturing, finance, information technology, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), construction and engineering, hospitality and tourism, pharmaceutical, and chemical.

Navigos Group has not disclosed the sectors that have gained the highest and lowest increases in salaries.

However, the group's project manager Lia Abella said the final salary report covered 75 job categories and would reveal the critical and more specific findings regarding gross and net salaries, bonuses, allowances and benefits for hundreds of different positions among the 15 major industries.

The survey identifies that a number of companies have revised up salaries two to three times within a year to help their employees cope with high inflation and to retain them.

"The preliminary report findings show that companies are definitely responding to market factors that have happened recently, like the rise of inflation," said Abella. "This report reflects the true insights of the salary trend in the Vietnamese labour market.

Abella stressed the first-ever bilingual salary report was not just for foreign-invested companies, but "for all businesses operating in Vietnam that want to be in the position to make salary decisions that are aligned with market trends and with the positions in their company and industry that they find themselves in."

Abella noted that the aforesaid issues must "be considered together, because just basing it on one factor would be looking at the situation microscopically."

Navigos Group will organise a seminar on "How Competitive is Your Compensation Strategy?" for participants to discuss relevant issues, current trends and analysis from the final salary survey on September 23 in HCM City and September 25 in Hanoi.

Late last month, the marketing and research firm TNS Vietnam released the Consumer Trends 2008 findings, showing that up to 95% of the consumers in Vietnam have been impacted by inflation but only one-third of them have seen their salaries rise.

Ralf Matthaes, managing director of TNS Vietnam, then said that the%age of higher salary beneficiaries remained low but was understandable as most companies did salary reviews at the end or beginning of each year.

"Hence they will most likely adjust their staff's wages at the end of 2008 or early 2009," Matthaes told the Daily after the release of the findings. He said most foreign companies were sharing the burden with their staff via allowances, not increments.