Asian travel salaries rise, but gender gap remains
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Travel industry salaries are increasing, but men still command higher pay than their female colleagues, a new study has found.
The 2016 Travel and Hospitality Industry Salary & Employment Trends Report by ACI HR Solutions revealed that 77% of travel industry respondents had received a pay increase in the past 12 months, and almost half (44%) the responding companies said they expect to hire extra staff in 2016.
But a gender gap appears to remain in the region, with male respondents reporting average salaries 55% higher than females.
Releasing the results, ACI’s founder & CEO, Andrew Chan, said that all indicators point towards the travel and hospitality industry “bucking the doom and gloom forecasts seen in other industries”.
“As in the previous surveys we have conducted since 2012, salary continues to be an important factor for candidates,” Chan said. “A total of 41% indicated they would need to see 11-22% salary increase when considering a new job.
“Notwithstanding, the importance of career development was also similar to recent results with a total of 69% of all respondents indicating that career progression was either ‘extremely important’ or ‘very important’ and only five percent saying career progression was unimportant.”
In a more concerning trend, the report shows 30% of respondents felt career prospects with their present employer were ‘poor’ or ‘zero’, compared to 26% from last year’s survey. This percentage has now increased for three straight years.
Perhaps more alarming for employers, 47% of respondents indicated that they would change employers in 2016, with a further 12% contemplating leaving the industry altogether.
And worryingly for female travel trade employees, the gap between their salaries and their male counterparts increased from 48% in 2015 to 55% in 2016. This is an average figure however, and could relate to the presence of more men in higher paying positions rather than women being remunerated less for the same job.
This year’s survey, which was undertaken in January 2016, gathered more than 700 respondents from nine Asia Pacific countries, ranging from company CEOs, managing directors and general managers through to middle management and front line staff. The largest proportion of respondents was based in Singapore, followed by Hong Kong, China and Malaysia.
The highest average salaries once again belonged to Macau and Hong Kong, while Indonesia posted the survey’s lowest average salary.
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