When does salary become fair pay?

When does salary become fair pay?

A recent study from Mercer finds that fair pay is one of the top concerns of employees in the Gulf.

February 21, 2012 3:47 by p.deleon

So, the latest employee engagement survey from Mercer is out and is it any surprise that here in the Gulf one of the top concerns among employees is a lack of fair pay?

The study, which surveyed employees across 17 markets worldwide including the GCC, found employees in the Gulf were less concerned about salary expectations but about being paid fairly and consistently compared to their peers.

“A figure that organisations must make note of is that workers in the GCC feel less positive when asked about their feelings surrounding fair pay for performance, compared to views on the same topic held by their European counterparts,” said Larisa Muravska who heads Mercer’s Human Capital.

The study found GCC workers are 15% less positive than workers in Europe and the US about being paid fairly when compared to others performing a similar job. Workers in the GCC also rank poorly when it comes to how their performance is evaluated (15% lower than the US) and understanding how pay is determined (21% lower than the US and 8% lower than Europe).

Fancy that: fair pay is actually more important to workers in the Gulf than extremely high pay. Kipp isn’t terribly surprised. After all, we’ve written time and time again about the somewhat arbitrary factors that affect an employee’s payment—including the story of our two friends in very similar middle management levels, both of whom were of Jordanian origin and of similar qualifications. A potential explanation for their different salary might have something to do with the passport they hold. One holds an American passport and the other a Jordanian passport. Guess who do you think gets more?

But we aren’t going to suggest that this is a question of race; no, that is another article all by itself. Mercer’s findings on employee engagement are both instructive and important. Given the terrible financial times we are in, that employees rank fair pay over pay in and of itself, well that just speaks volumes.