KUWAIT, Jul 26 (Kuwait Times): Eighty percent of workers in Kuwait are dissatisfied with their salaries, according to a new survey conducted by Bayt.com, which was released yesterday. Only 12 percent of those polled claimed to be satisfied with their salaries, while another eight percent said that they were unsure. In the recent Salary Search poll conducted by Bayt.com, between June 4 and July 7, workers in the region were asked if they felt they were paid fairly. The poll gathered answers from all over the Middle East region with 16 percent responding positively, 17 percent stating that they were unsure and 66 percent overall stating that they were not paid fairly. In the UAE, 12 percent said they were happy with their pay, 15 percent were unsure and 73 percent were unhappy with the amount of their salaries. Elsewhere in the GCC, in KSA, Kuwait and Qatar, 14 percent, 12 percent and 9 percent respectively said they were paid enough, while 14 percent, 8 percent and 16 percent said they were unsure and 71 percent, 80 percent and 75 percent said they were not paid enough.
Walid, an HR manager at a leading local trade and contracting firm, said that the survey results were due to several reasons. First, he said that dissatisfaction with salaries in Kuwait is connected to the economic crisis which affected the country's economy in a negative way, leading to several companies cutting costs and dismissing staff, which, he said, "caused a case of lower demand and over supply.
Another problem he suggested might be connected to the survey's findings is rising prices coupled with static wages, especially after the economic crisis during which most local companies did not increase workers' salaries. He also pointed out that most of Kuwait's workforce comes from poor countries where the cost of living is relatively low and where the same salaries might be adequate in relation to the cost of living. "But when they come to Kuwait and see the high living standards and the high sala
ries they involuntarily compare it to their salaries and automatically think that what they are making isn't enough," he said.
Others suggested that Kuwait offers the lowest salaries among Gulf nations, although those other Gulf nations are also more expensive in terms of living costs and expenses, including housing. The poll is part of Bayt.com's Innovative Salary Search Engine, the first comprehensive pan-regional online salary calculator in the Middle East North Africa (MENA) Region. Bayt.com announced the launch of the program in a press release issued yesterday, explaining that it would allow users to find and anonymously share salary details about specific jobs for specific employers or companies across the region.
Bayt.com's Salary Search helps jobseekers today to find their way through a maze of offers and information to pinpoint the jobs that offer the best possible salary in their preferred location and industry. Armed with this knowledge employees can not only seek the best career options for themselves, they can also negotiate better and understand the compensation trajectories to expect within a particular company or industry," said the press release. "Employers can similarly use the Bayt.com Salary Search to ol to effectively gauge prevalent salary conditions for particular roles, career levels and sectors making for a more fair, balanced and competitive marketplace.
Bayt.com's CEO Rabea Ataya, was quoted as saying, "Bayt.com has been extremely successful at helping job-seekers find new employment across the Middle East and North Africa. However, a recent poll we conducted showed that 66.4 percent of employees in the region were unhappy with their salary, 53 percent were not sure salary structures in their organizations were transparent and 90% wished they had a source of data to benchmark salaries in the region. The Salary Search tool will be invaluable for both employees and employers. By accessing this fresh and vital salary information, both parties are empowered with a clearer and more balanced understanding of prevalent salary levels in the marketplace as well as compensation trends across industries, roles and sectors.
The new program is a simple and user-friendly too., making the average salaries for the most popular job titles available to all visitors to the recruitment site. In order to see salary details, however, registered users have to post their salary. All posts are completely anonymous. Bayt.com Salary Search then offers three types of salary search for registered users. The Basic Salary Search, which is free of charge, allows users to browse average salaries for popular jobs and different occupation in the M
iddle East and other countries, according to the press release.