eFinancialCareers

The rising cost of living and strong demand for specialist skills are forcing banking pay up by as much as 40% a year.

“Demand for investment bankers, structured finance professionals, and client relationship managers has driven the dramatic increase in compensation over the last three years,” says Alex Cormack, director and head of Middle East at headhunters Sheffield Haworth.

In exceptional cases, headhunters say senior management packages have increased from US$1.5m to around US$2m to US$2.5m in the past 12 months alone.

Inflation rates in excess of 10% in the UAE are stoking pay demands.

However, Barbara Ball, senior recruitment officer at the Arab Banking Corporation, says the emphasis is more on non-monetary benefits than salaries: “Salary expectations have gone up, but in reality it’s not the salaries, but the benefits – housing allowance, flight allowance, medical and dental cover, schooling for children – that have been the real selling points.”

Metin Mitchell, managing director Middle East at Korn/Ferry International, says housing allowances are insufficient to compensate for the sky-rocketing property market: “Real estate is going up dramatically, so they [banks] are having to pay staff more so that they can keep their head above water.”

As ever, however, the best way to pump up your salary is simply to switch jobs. Mitchell reckons that people look for a 20% increase when negotiating a new deal.