Workers unhappy with salaries despite rises

Almost half of employees are dissatisfied with their salaries, despite getting a pay increase, it has emerged.

A survey of more than 2,000 employees and employers across the country found that 65% of businesses gave pay rises over the past 12 months.

Almost a third (65%) of companies say they will increase salaries over the next year.

However, pay is becoming a major issue for 44% when hiring, because of unrealistic expectations.

The latest Hays Salary Survey found over three quarters of employers (76%) expect hiring challenges next year, as competition for talented professionals intensifies.

Hays Ireland managing director, Richard Eardley, said the demand for labour, particularly in technical fields, was so high that candidates could essentially choose who they work for and push for higher salaries.

“This is in stark contrast to just four years ago where, for many, it was a matter of taking what was offered,” he said.

Mr Eardley said one in four employers were increasing their training and recruitment budgets to deal with the skills shortage.

One in five employers were moving staff to areas where there was a skill shortage. Many employers were looking abroad to fill talent gaps, particularly in the construction sector.

Almost half (49%) of employers intend recruiting staff to permanent jobs, with 17% planning to fill temporary or interim positions. One third (33%) plan to fill both permanent and temporary jobs.

Over the last 12 months, 34% of employers said they had increased pay by more than 2.5%, 31% had increased pay up to 2.5%, 32% said salaries remained the same and 3% said it had decreased.

In the next 12 months, 28% of employers intend increasing their workforce’s wages by more than 2.5%; 37% planned to increase salaries up to 2.5%. Over a third (34%) said wages would stay the same, with 1% intending to decrease pay.

One in five employees who asked for a pay rise in the past year were successful, but an almost similar number (18%) were unsuccessful, while 62% had not looked for a rise.

Meanwhile, the director of the Nevin Economic Research Institute, Tom Healy, has found that wages, as measured by real average weekly earnings, have not increased since 2008.

In gross terms (before deduction of taxes) average weekly earnings came to €706.9 per week in the third quarter of this year. Mr Healy said the statistics of wage changes received remarkably little attention in Ireland, apart from the predictable obsession with the public-private gap.

“There is very little discussion of trends in average wages across the entire economy or of earnings dispersion within the public sector and within the private sector,” he said.