[SINGAPORE] Employers across the Asia-Pacific region are anticipating another good year as they budget for bigger pay hikes in the coming year.

And among the region's more advanced economies, Singapore bosses are the most generous in making allocations for the larger payoffs in the coming year, according to a recent poll by Hong Kong-based Human Resource Business Solutions (HRBS).

"Pay increase in 2008 is expected to be higher than in 2007 across Asia-Pacific, looking at both median and mean (average) figures," says HRBS' managing partner Elaine Ng.

"The average figures show all locations having more pay rise," she says. "The median figures show that most countries will have more pay rise."

The trend reflects some employers playing catch-up and offering a much bigger raise than the median reference.

The HRBS poll gels with the findings of a compensation report released last week by the Hay Group, which sees real wages in the Asia-Pacific region climbing further next year.

According to Hay, which is a human resources consultancy, real pay hikes in the region - after adjusting for inflation - are projected to range from 3.3 to 5.6 per cent in 2008. Salaries in Singapore are tipped to rise by 3.8 per cent.

HBRS' poll did not cover inflation. Bosses in Singapore, who gave an increment averaging 4.8 per cent this year, are ready to up it to 5.2 per cent in 2008, according to the poll covering 862 employers in all industries in 18 locations in the region.

"Singapore's economy is performing very well this year," notes HRBS' Ms Ng. "The growth in labour force is 9.6 per cent in 2006 while job vacancies jumped 54 per cent in that year."

But employers in Japan, the most developed and biggest economy in the region, indicated they are likely to keep salary hikes in 2008 to just around 3.3 per cent - virtually unchanged from the 3.2 per cent dished out in 2007.

Bosses in Australia, New Zealand and Taiwan are also tipped to be cautious, offering pay hikes hardly better than this year.

Australian employees are likely to see their pay inch up from 4.6 to 4.7 per cent next year, the New Zealanders from 4.2 to 4.3 per cent, and the Taiwanese from 4.8 to 4.9 per cent.

Employers in South Korea, who raised pay by an average 6.9 per cent in 2007, intend to increase pay by 7.4 per cent next year, the poll shows.

"Singapore's rival, Hong Kong, is expected to grant average pay increase of 4.6 per cent in 2008, from 4.2 per cent in 2007," Ms Ng says. "The median is expected to remain stable at 4.1 per cent in 2008 relative to 4.0 per cent in 2007."

She notes that the Hong Kong economy is performing well, drawing more foreign direct investments than Singapore and benefiting from China's booming economy.

China, which is pulling in the biggest chunk of foreign investments in the region, continues to face a shortage of talent that is likely to push remuneration up 9.2 per cent in 2008. This would come after an 8.3 per cent hike this year.

Pay is tipped to shoot up even higher in the other emerging giant economy - India. The poll shows employers there planning to offer a raise of 15.1 per cent in the coming year, up from 14.1 per cent in 2007.

Bosses in Vietnam, another rising star economy in the region, are also expected to give a hefty increase in pay next year, upping it from 9.4 per cent in 2007 to 11.2 per cent.

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