Ready for your potential salary increase in 2012?

Well you'd better be as you’re bound to get more wage hike than your Hong Kong counterparts - isn’t that great?

According to a release, employees in Singapore can expect to receive on average a 4.5% salary increase in 2012 - higher than the 4.1% wage hike they received this year but lower than the regional average of 6.3%. This is according to the latest Salary Trends Survey by ECA International, the world’s leader in international assignee management.

With inflation expected to moderate next year compared with this year, salaries of Singapore employees will be better off in real terms in 2012. When inflation, forecast to be 2.9% next year, is factored in, Singaporeans will experience a real wage increase of 1.6%, an improvement over the 0.4% real wage increase seen this year.

“Clearly there is a lot of uncertainty about the near-future,” says Lee Quane, Regional Director, ECA International in Asia. “Even developing nations that have retained high growth are growing uneasy at the prospect of a renewed slowdown in the global marketplace. Nevertheless, on average, companies throughout the region are forecasting slightly higher increases in 2012 than this year, as is the case in Singapore.

“While inflation globally is generally expected to be lower in 2012 than this year, it may still be quite high, especially in Asia, and the longer inflation remains elevated, the higher people’s expectations become for future inflation, a mindset which pushes up pay demands.”

Like their counterparts in Singapore, Hong Kongers can expect a 4.5% wage increase in 2012, higher than the wage hike this year of 3.8%. However, in real terms, employees in Hong Kong will be less well off than Singaporeans. The inflation forecast of 4.5% in the Special Administrative Region in 2012 will undercut the expected salary increase.

“While employees in Singapore receive lower base salaries than their Hong Kong counterparts, the fact that they will be enjoying significantly higher real wage increase means that the salary gap between these locations will continue to narrow."

ECA's Salary Trends Survey, which is conducted annually, monitors actual salary increases for 2011 and predicted salary increases for 2012 in 60 markets. The survey is used by international companies to monitor and benchmark salary increases in local markets around the world. Data used for this survey was taken between August and October this year.