GCC Organisations to Increase Salary and Benefits in 2024

Research from Procapita Group finds that 83% of organisations in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates are planning to provide either salary increases or annual bonuses over the next year.

By Maggie Mancini

Approximately 83% of organisations in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) are planning to provide salary increases or annual bonuses to employees in 2024, up from 77.6% in 2023, according to a recent HR trend report from Procapita Group. Nearly half of all organisations in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates will provide both a salary increase and an annual bonus, the research finds.  

While it remains unclear how much of an increase employees can expect to see in the next 12 months, the report finds that it may be in line with the 6.7% increase that organisations provided in 2023.  

Though annual salary increases are a common practice for many global organisations, this growth among countries in the GCC is more pronounced. The report cites competition for talent, national economic performance, and inflation as reasons why salary growth in the GCC is often higher than in other markets.  

And although personnel costs are expected to rise, seven out of 10 organisations in the GCC expect to hire more employees in 2024—with Saudi Arabia leading the charge. These changes come as 52.5% of respondents say that a lack of skilled AI professionals is hindering their organisation’s ability to implement AI, according to the report.