Kienbaum Vienna publishes salary development forecast for 2022.
How will salaries develop in the coming year? To answer this question, the personnel and management consultancy Kienbaum Vienna carried out a worldwide study in 48 countries. Conclusion: The salaries of most of the participants will increase in the coming year despite the current situation. However, due to high inflation rates in some countries, the real increase will be low. Sometimes there will even be no increases or even negative effects. With a real salary development of two percent and inflation of 1.8 percent, Austria is in the middle of the field.
Non-EU countries beat EU countries
According to the forecast, salaries in the EU countries will rise between 1.9 and 5.8 percent. The forecast increases in Austria are higher than those in Germany. “In the European Union, Hungary has the highest average salary increase at 5.8 percent,” states Alfred Berger, Head of Compensation & Performance Management and Board Service at Kienbaum Vienna.
The average wage increase in the non-EU countries is 4.1 percent higher than in the EU countries. The nominal wage development is highest here at 14.4 percent in Turkey, with a high inflation rate of 11.8 percent. Albania is the only country in Europe to have a negative development of -1.8 percent, as the average salary development is low at 1.2 percent.
Strongest salary increases for specialists and skilled workers
In Europe, the projected salary increases show clear differences according to hierarchical level. Specialists and skilled workers are expected to have some of the strongest increases in salaries in many countries. The greatest influencing factor on the development of salaries in the EU countries is the economic situation of the country, which is influenced by price developments. In Austria and Germany, however, collective agreements have the greatest leverage on salary growth. Leading closely by the company performance, which is only in third place across Europe.
In most of the non-EU countries, too, the country’s economic situation has the greatest influence on salary growth; in Switzerland it is the factors of company and individual performance.
India and China are rising the most
In a comparison of the selected countries, India ranks first outside Europe with a 7.2 percent nominal wage increase. This is followed by China (Beijing area) with 6.1 percent and China (Shanghai area) with 5.3 percent. The highest inflation rates are forecast for India at 4.1 percent and Brazil at 4.0 percent. “Real income increases are expected in all of the countries under review except Brazil,” summarizes Alfred Berger.
On average, specialists and skilled workers as well as top management perform best outside of Europe compared to the other hierarchical levels. In India, according to the salary development forecast, top management gains the most with 7.4 percent.
While in most non-European countries the price development has the greatest influence on the salary development, this in China’s Shanghai region is mainly influenced by the economic situation of the country. In general, the importance of the influencing factors across geographical and political regions is similar around the world, although there are differences in the strength of the factors. (how)