Gender salary gap remains in Asian travel industry
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The difference between the salaries of men and women in Asia Pacific’s travel, tourism and hospitality industries appears to be widening, a new report has found.
The 2017 ‘Salary & Employment Trends Report’ from ACI HR Solutions underlines that while female executives are seen to be making inroads toward professional equality, their male counterparts continue to earn more.
ACI founder & CEO, Andrew Chan, commented; “Surprisingly, given the amount of discussion and coverage professional equality receives – and some of our clients having wonderful initiatives implemented – not only have we not seen the gap narrow, but… we have actually seen it widen from 48% in 2015 to 55% in 2016.
“While the gap appears large… the 55% represented our overall survey, which actually highlights the disparity in the number of women holding senior positions. This ultimately shows us [that], irrespective of the salary component, there are far less females holding senior positions across these industry sectors in roles such as general managers and CEOs,” Chan added.
Now in its fifth year, the Salary & Employment Trends Report attracted responses from more than 700 employees across the employment spectrum, from front line sales consultants to CEOs and managing directors.
The importance of higher education was underlined, with degree holders earning an average of 7% more than diploma holders and those holding masters degrees earning a further 25% more again. On a positive note, feedback from employers showed that 40% expect to take on new staff in 2017.
From the perspective of salary satisfaction, 60% of respondents indicated they had received some form of pay rise in the last 12 months, with the majority (45%) in the range of a 1-5%. But this figure was sharply down from the 2016 result when 77% of respondents indicated a bump in pay. In addition, 56% of respondents said they would expect a 10% salary increase before they would consider changing jobs.
The importance of career development and employee satisfaction also remained similar to previous years, with 64% of respondents indicating that career progression was either ‘extremely important’ or ‘very important’.
Unfortunately, 29% said that their career prospects with their current employers were ‘low’ or ‘zero’.