The survey was conducted in December 2022 and polled 3,834 employees and 446 employers (HR specialists). Respondents work in the sectors of IT, retail, finance-banking, BPO & services, telecommunications, consumer goods manufacturing, health services, industrial manufacturing, hospitality industry, hydrocarbon/energy manufacturing-transport, scientific/technical services, construction/furniture, media&culture.
Around 27% of employees say they would need a 20-30% pay rise to make ends meet, 20% need a 10-15% pay rise, and about 19% need a 15-20% increase. On the other hand, about 7% of respondents said they would like a pay rise of more than 50% to meet ends. At the same time, 6.5% of employees said they would make do with their expenses even if their salary would not be raised in 2023.
If their salary is not raised, 41% of employees plan to look for another job, 19% will try a renegotiation with their direct manager, 13% will look for additional collaboration or a second job, and 9% will appreciate other benefits. Some 19% don’t have any plans in case they do not receive a pay rise this year.
A third of employees say their salary is raised annually, 28% only due to renegotiation, 19% of employees have higher wages based on performance, and 12% say the company they work for only increases salaries annually for certain positions. Nearly 2% of respondents said they got a higher salary every quarter and 5% every two years.
If they don’t get a higher salary in 2023, 29% of employees say they will manage but will make minor adjustments, namely, they will go on fewer holidays and buy cheaper products. Around 23% think they will manage, but only if they make considerable adjustments, namely, they will stop buying new clothes, choose private label products as often as possible, pay close attention to utility costs (energy, water).
Approximately 17% of respondents think they will find it very difficult to get by because loan instalments and other significant expenses already account for a lot of their monthly income. Around 13% say they will find it challenging to get by even if they have no loan instalments because their salary is relatively low and they have no growth prospects. 10% say they will find it quite difficult to get by because loan instalments account for the bulk of their family’s monthly income, but their parents also help them. On the other hand, 8% say they will manage quite well and will not cut back on their expenses.
“We observe in this survey a pertinent expectation from employees to have higher salaries this year given the economic climate and also a similar intention from companies. We also observe the HR specialists’ attention to see that the increase in salaries is proportionate to the macroeconomic situation but also to employees’ performance. It is worth noting that employers are thinking of different ways to motivate their employees even if they cannot afford a pay rise”, said Costin Tudor, founder and CEO of Undelucram.ro.
Some 62% of employers plan to raise employees’ salaries this year, 21% only for specific positions, and 17% will not raise wages.
Around 36% of HR specialists say the companies they represent will raise salaries by 5-10%, about 22% say the increase will be 5%, and 17% of companies will raises wages by 10-15%. About 2.5% of HR experts mention a 30-40% pay rise in the companies for which they work.
Also, 52% of employers say the planned pay rises is part of an annual plan to keep their employees motivated, 28% want to do so because of the economic context, 17% because of labor market dynamics, and 2.5% because of the company’s outperformance. Around 5% want to increase staff salaries for other reasons.
Many of the employers that will not raise salaries have decided to do so because they want to reward their employees in other ways (39%). Around 28% will not increase wages because the company’s financial situation at the end of 2022 does not allow for a salary raise, 17% because of the whole macroeconomic context and 17% because the companies for which they work raise salaries only following employee-employer negotiations.