Global salaries are expected to outstrip the rate of inflation by an average of 2.4% in 2006, according to statistics from Mercer Human Resource Consulting.
This is a gain on this year’s figures which show average salaries grew by 1.9% above the rate of inflation.
The study also found a minority of countries will experience rises which are over double the global average. The greatest increases are expected in India, Egypt and Lithuania where employees are forecast to receive pay rises of 7.3%, 7.1% and 5.5% above inflation respectively.
Average pay in 69% of the countries covered, including the UK and US, is predicted to increase by between 1 and 3.5 percentage points above inflation.
Greg Cornish, global head of human capital advisory services at Mercer, said there had been strong global economic growth in the past couple of years and all the signs indicated this would continue in 2006.
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“With this growth and more stable inflation we anticipate next year’s pay rises to be higher, in real terms, than this year’s,” he said.
Mercer’s Global Compensation Planning Report examines employment, economic and pay trends in some 70 countries worldwide.