According to the Singapore salary survey (Hudson Report 1Q 2011), a large majority of respondents say that their organisation plans to increase salaries in Singapore for existing managerial staff this year.
Overall, 91% say they will do so, reflecting the significant improvement in market conditions since 2008 and 2009, when Singapore salary freezes were widespread. Most employers now feel obliged to increase salaries but few are planning to pay large increments.
Overall, more than half (52%) of respondents expect to pay salary increments in the 4-6% range, while just 5% say they will pay 10% or more. Employees in the Banking & Financial Services sector are likely to receive the most generous salary increments this year. Just 7% of respondents say they will pay 1-3%, a lower proportion than for any other sector. At the other end of the scale, 11% plan to offer increments of more than 10%, by far the highest figure for the sectors surveyed.
Some of the higher salary increments are being offered by banks trying to retain talented employees in the face of increasing poaching by their competitors.
At 96%, the Healthcare & Life Sciences has the highest proportion of respondents who say they will pay salary increments to existing managerial staff this year. However, the increments are likely to be relatively limited. Only 8% plan to increase salaries by 7-9% and none of the respondents surveyed say they will offer 10% or more.
The IT&T sector has relatively low proportions of respondents planning to pay either no salary increment or just 1-3%. These responses are given by 7% and 10% of respondents respectively. The majority of rises in this sector are likely to be between 4% and 9%. Singapore salary increments are very closely tied to performance in this sector and the upturn in demand for IT services is giving many employees the opportunity to earn an increase.