Still a long way to go

Conrad Egbert, Editor.

The results of the Construction Week salary survey are finally out, shedding a lot of light on the inner workings of the construction industry. Some pretty amazing trends have been revealed, along with some rather alarming facts.

A positive outlook for the future is evident with 61% of people expecting to get a pay rise in the next 12 months, coupled with only 8% of respondents claiming not to have received a pay rise for the past three or more years.

In addition, 78% of people get some kind of allowance along with their basic salary. These could be in the form of accommodation, commissions and bonuses, travel expenses, annual return air tickets, bi-annual air tickets and vehicles given to them by their companies.

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On the flip side, the survey also revealed that despite the market maturing on a lot of levels, there’s still a long way to go before we see more professional recruitment practices being applied in the GCC.

We still haven’t reached the point where a candidate is assessed solely on their capabilities, experience and qualifications and are therefore paid accordingly.

Nationality is still among the leading factors in deciding remuneration packages.

The survey revealed that a typical construction professional from India earns almost US $2000 (AED7300) less than the industry-wide average each month.

The average salary of an Indian construction professional working in the Gulf is $4111 per month, which is $1936 lower than the industry-wide average of $6047 per month.

Similarly, the average salary of a project manager from India is $5617 per month, compared to an industry-wide average of $7774.

A total of 1221 people took part in the survey with Indian professionals being the largest single nationality group identified in the survey at 31% of respondents, followed by professionals from the Philippines and the United Kingdom.