Workers across the globe are projected to get a larger pay increase next year than they have received in any of the past three years.
Real wages will increase by an average of 2.5 percent worldwide, according to the 2016 salary forecast of Korn Ferry Hay Group.
The international human resources firm attributes this relatively high increase in real wages to salary increases and historically low inflation.
“Real wages” refers to salary increases after accounting for inflation.
Workers in the United States, for example, are projected to see an average real-wage increase of 2.7 percent next year. That figure reflects a projected salary increase of 3 percent and a projected inflation rate of 0.3 percent.
The highest average real-wage increase predicted for 2016 is that of the Middle Eastern nation of Lebanon — 11.5 percent — followed by those of three Asian countries.
Asia as a whole is expected to see the highest average real-wage increase of any region in the world, 4.2 percent.
Even China, which experienced an economic slowdown that shook stock markets worldwide this year, is expected to see the third-highest average real-wage increase next year, 6.3 percent.
The countries expected to see average real-wage increases of at least 5 percent are:
- Lebanon: 11.5 percent
- Vietnam: 7.3 percent
- China: 6.3 percent
- Thailand: 6.1 percent
- Dominican Republic: 5.4 percent
- Romania: 5.4 percent
- Jordan: 5.3 percent
- Philippines: 5.2 percent
- Lithuania: 5 percent
Korn Ferry Hay Group’s salary forecasts are based on data for more than 20 million workers in 24,000 organizations across more than 110 countries. Its inflation forecasts are based on those of the Economist Intelligence Unit.
Of the dozens of countries included in Korn Ferry Hay Group’s analysis, only five are expected to see a decrease in their average real wages:
- Venezuela: -52.6 percent
- Ukraine: -36.8 percent
- Russia: -7.5 percent
- Brazil: -1.2 percent
- Egypt: -0.4 percent
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