Nearly half of employers in Asia expect to raise salaries in 2024

Employers in Asia are seeing a more conservative estimate of between 3% to 6% in salary raises to offer employees in 2024.

This is according to a recently released 2024 Hays Asia Salary Guide, which surveyed 2,014 skilled professionals and 832 employers across Asia, with regions like Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, and China.

Within the new salary guide, 43% of organisations reveal that they intend to raise salaries by 3% to 6%, with another 22.2% sharing that they only plan to increase salaries by up to 3%.

Regions like Hong Kong, China and Malaysia expect to see the most significant improvement in this area. Raises of up to 3% are seeing mixed reactions from markets, with only China, Hong Kong and Singapore trending up. Japan is expected to see a significant drop, with over 13% less employers in this bracket.

The guide also found that out of the employers that responded to the survey, only 12.6% opined that they expect salaries to remain the same. This is a fall of 3.3 percentage points from what was reported the year before.

The survey also shared that 64.9% of employers have indicated plans to give bonuses in 2024, compared to 66.7% of the respondents to Hays’ survey in 2023.

READ MORE: Employers in Singapore plan wage increases and hiring surge

More employers across Asia emerge hopeful of avoiding salary cuts or a lack of raises this year, compared to employees who exercise caution over expectations of raises. However, in turn, employees hopeful for a large increase are likely to experience higher odds of disappointment, as more employers may not be as willing to match their expectations.