As companies in the UAE gradually reopen, a Dubai-based consultant finds out that they’re offering 15 to 20 percent lower salaries for newly-hired employees.
Companies are also imposing the ‘new normal’ 4-day work for employees as they maintain temporary pay cuts.
The current market dynamics is being dictated by the fact that job seekers want to settle down in the country with a lower salary to avoid going back home.
“The good news is that new hiring is slowly picking up as we see more organizations getting back physically to work and starting to fill the essential roles which were stalled per-Covid. The temporary drop in base pay for 3 to 4 months for existing jobholders should end by August/September in a majority of the companies. The average drop we foresee for new joiners is 15-20 percent less than people working at the same level,” Vijay Gandhi, regional director of Korn Ferry told Gulf News.
Gandhi added that salary growth for new joiners will ‘take time’ as business re-invents for the new normal and optimizers with better technology and choosing what they need to start, stop, and continue doing,” he added.
