According to the ILO, salary packages and remuneration will increase by 1.8 percent in 2023.
Its positive trend continued in the first half of 2024 and it grew by 2.7 percent due to the strong global recovery post-Covid-19.
ILO Director-General Gilbert Hongbo said, “If this trend proves correct, it would be the largest increase in more than 15 years… However, this positive trend is not uniform in all regions.”
Gilbert Hongbo said at the release of the ILO’s Global Wage Report in Geneva that current global wage gains represent a significant improvement over the 0.9 percent decline in 2022 with higher inflation and higher price wage growth.
The ILO chief said the trend toward offering bigger pay packages was less pronounced in highly industrialized economies, where salaries rose 0.9 percent last year.
This is in contrast to emerging economies, which saw wage growth of about six percent in 2023, after growth of 1.8 percent in 2022.
This positive trend in this economy will continue in 2024 as well.
Despite these positive developments, prices remain high for low-income households and they struggle with the rising cost of living.
“While inflation has eased, it remains a harsh reality in many emerging and developing countries,” said the head of the UN labor agency.
Regional trends
From a regional perspective, average wages in Asia and the Pacific, Central and Western Asia and Eastern Europe have grown faster than the rest of the world.
In 2022, Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Central and West Asia were the only regions where average wages increased in 2022, while real average wages declined in all other regions.
In 2024, real average wages remained stable in African and Arab countries. But apart from this, the salary has increased in all other sectors.
This ranged from a 17.9 percent wage increase in Central and West Asia to a 0.3 percent increase in North America.