Wage increases set to slow globally – Korn Ferry Hay Group

Workers around the world are expected to see average real wage increases of 2.3%* in 2017. This is down slightly from last year’s prediction of 2.7%*. The data was drawn from Korn Ferry Hay Group PayNet, which contains data for more than 20 million jobholders in 25,000 organizations across more than 110 countries.

  • In Asia, salaries are forecast to increase by 6.1% with real salaries expected to rise by 4.3% – the highest of any region globally. However, in China, real wage increases are 2.5% lower than last year – down to 4.0%.
  • Workers in the Middle East (with average real increases of 2.5%) and Eastern Europe (2.1%) are expected to enjoy higher real wage increases than their counterparts in Western Europe (1.7%) and North America (1.4%), as slower growth in mature markets keeps a lid on pay increases.
  • Latin America (average real increases of 1.1%) and Africa (0.7%) see the lowest predicted increases, as almost all of the headline pay increases are eaten away by high inflation.

The infographic below shows predicted salary increases, as forecasted by global HR departments, for 2017 and compares them to 2016 inflation data from the Economist Intelligence Unit. Average real wages increases are based on 76 countries in Korn Ferry Hay Group’s database.

* Global real wage averages exclude Venezuela, Argentina, Russia and Ukraine and Latin America’s regional averages exclude Venezuela.

For a personalised insight into salary trends for 2017 with data from 75+ countries around the globe, please visit Korn Ferry Hay Group PayNet: click here.


2017 Global salary infographic