5.5% salary boost seen for Thai
THAI WORKERS will enjoy a salary increase of 5.5 per cent in 2019, similar to the previous year, according to a forecast issued by consulting firm Korn Ferry.
In the Korn Ferry 2019 Global Salary Forecast, Thailand is ranked fifth in terms of real-salary forecast – tied with Azerbaijan – at 3.9 per cent, among some 100 countries included in the study. The real-salary forecast in Ukraine, Turkey, India and Vietnam are expected to be higher than Thailand, at 5.9 per cent, 5.5 per cent, 5 per cent and 4.8 per cent, respectively.
The data was drawn from Korn Ferry's pay database which contains data for more than 20 million job holders in 25,000 organisations across more than 110 countries.
It shows predicted salary increases, as forecasted by global HR leaders, for 2019 and compares them to predictions made at this time last year regarding 2018. It also compares them to 2019 inflation forecasts from the Economist Intelligence Unit.
As a region, Asia is expected to see the highest real-salary growth globally, with an expected inflation-adjusted real-salary increase at 2.6 per cent, but down from 2.8 per cent last year. There will be a 2.0 per cent increase for Eastern Europe, 0.7 per cent for Western Europe, 1.3 per cent increase for Latin America, 0.9 per cent increase for Africa, 0.6 per cent increase for North America, 0.4 per cent for the Middle East and 0.3 per cent increase for the Pacific region.
The Thai economy reached its strongest pace in 2018 since 2012 with a GDP growth of 4.5 per cent, and had resulted in a low unemployment rate of 0.9 per cent. While it is forecasted that GDP for 2019 will drop to 4.3 percent, the Korn Ferry 2019 Global Salary Forecast predicts that at the individual level, the salary increase will remain at 5.5 percent (no change from last year).
However, the rising inflation (1.6 per cent) will drive real-salary down to 3.9 per cent, from 4.5 per cent in 2018, Mana Lohatepanont, Managing Director, Korn Ferry Thailand, said.
