Small Business Salary Guide: 3 Ways You Can Pay Your Employee Right

Just like participating in the eponymous game show, how do you know when the price is right? We are not referring to household appliances, cars, or vacation spots. In this article, let us talk about salaries. More specifically, your employees’ salaries.

How important is it? According to our Decoding Global Talent report, employees place salary in the fourth spot among things they look for in a job. In fact, it is also an important aspect of the recruitment process. Salary is what you and the jobseeker negotiate during the interviews. After all, fair work equals fair pay.

So with these in mind, you may be wondering, “What is the best rate I can give to my employee?” Let us take a look at our Salary Report.

Also read: Employers Look Back At 2021’s HR Best Practices

The data opens with the overall salary report overview. This section refers to the growth or regression of the salary changes. Divided into industry and specialization, the figures reflect how much pay people receive.

Fortunately, the numbers show positive growth for both sectors with 14% (industry) and 9.7% (specialization) from 2020. The country falls only second to Singapore in terms of pay increments.

We quickly summarize some important highlights of the overall salary growth across the country:

• Education, public service, and social services are among highest pay rises. The education sector tops the list at 67%. This goes hand in hand with the push of government officials to increase the wages of public school teachers.

• Oil/Gas, Hospitality, Industrial Machinery decrease in pay cuts. All three industries have seen a 42% decrease in pay cuts versus 2020. This comes after the economy re-opened slowly, with tourism returning to full force in increments. The increase in blue-collar jobs is evident, as more and more jobs under that sector are in full swing demand.

• Communication Service, Consulting, Computer/IT are among the highest salaries. In terms of entry-level positions, the 3 industries listed above price their salaries at a Php 19k starting rate. Furthermore, junior executives have the highest paying median salaries across these listed industries.

• In terms of salary increase by location, there are five in the list overall. Cagayan Valley (60%), BARMM (57.6%), CAR (57.5%), Caraga (54.5%), and SOCCSKARGEN (54%) have all seen increases.

• But if we break it down per city, Central Luzon, National Capital Region, and CALABARZON sectors top the lists. Angeles City in Pampanga spearheads at 45.1% and with good reason. The increase in salary growth may be due to the increase in BPO sectors in the city.

It may be tempting to compare SMEs versus Corporate. While the company size and volume may significantly differ, no one company serves better than the other. At the end of the day, being a good company means taking care of your assets. That includes your employees, first and foremost.

IT/Computer industry tops the list for both highest paid industry and specialization. This comes as no surprise since IT has been in demand for quite some time. Its offshoots like e-commerce, social media, and the digitalization of the working world contribute to rising demand.

For growth in terms of industry, you have Telecommunications (35.9) for SME and Consulting (91.3) for Corporate. As for specialization, the Sciences (19.4) top for SME and for Corporate, you have Accounting and Finance (25.5).

When talking about stable specializations, we take a look per position level. In this case, there are four.

• Entry-level: The Sciences top the list with a Php 2,050 increase. A probable cause would be because research and development rose in demand due to the pandemic. Computer/IT and Engineering follow suit.

• Junior Executive: Professionals in the junior executive category are in demand in the IT industry. Therefore, a salary increase of Php 1,500 occurred.

• Supervisor: For these type of roles, the Sciences top the list with a salary growth increase of Php 4,000.

• Manager: Sales and Marketing saw a rise by Php 4,500 in their industry. With the way the world has evolved, sales and marketing carry over to e-commerce and selling through social media.

So as an SME, how do you show you appreciate your employees through financial means? But this other question may nag you as well too. “Should you compare your salaries to corporations?”

To answer the latter, you can level the playing field by doing your research. This refers to scoping out the median salary of the positions you are hiring. After you find the figures out, try to match it or price it higher. Such awareness can give you an edge not only on corporations hiring for the same position but for your jobseekers as well.

Keeping this in mind, how do you ensure that you can pay your employees right? Here are three ways.

1. 1.

   Integrate the key attractors into your offer

2. 2.

   Focus on your employer branding

3. 3.

   Build your offer right

Salary is just one part of the whole package offer. You also have to build the other parts of it, and that includes the non-monetary benefits. Such examples include:

• Vacation, sick, and special leaves – How many are they entitled to?

• Can they work from home? How flexible is your workplace?

• What HMO plan is available?

• Is work-life balance guaranteed?

• What are the employee programs available?

Make sure that your offer is in sync or at a competitive level with your industry. This gives you leeway to rope the right people in. At the same time, you can best bet that they will stay loyal to you through the end.

(Also read: Top Reasons Why Employees Resign and How To Keep Them)

Find out how you can hire and pay your employees better. Download the Salary Report to see how you can do that. Use Talent Search to access the largest talent database in Southeast Asia and find the best candidate for the job.

For more advice and insights on how you can adapt your business to face today’s challenges, visit Inspirations.