Just under half of Irish professionals believe that their employers are not consistently transparent about salary increases.

Two in five Irish professionals are not satisfied with their salary, according to a salary and recruitment trends report released by recruiting group Hays Ireland on Monday. 40 percent of 2,700 employees surveyed as part of the report expressed dissatisfaction with their current renumeration, with the majority of those people (62 percent) feeling that their salary does not reflect their individual performance. One of the major themes in this year’s report was employer transparency when it comes to employee salaries, with just under half of those surveyed (49 percent) believing that their organisation is not consistently transparent about how salary increases are devised. This is despite the fact that over three quarters (78 percent) of employees claimed that it is important for their organisation to be transparent about how pay levels and pay rises are set. Elsewhere, some of the main findings in the report include:

• 18 percent of employers suggest they are aware of a gender pay gap in their organisation. Of that number, 67 percent say it negatively affects candidate attraction and 76 percent claim it negatively impacts staff retention.
• 92 percent of employers have experienced skills shortages in the last year.
• 29 percent don’t have the necessary talent to achieve current business objectives.
• 78 percent of employers expect to recruit staff in the next year, with 61 percent planning on recruiting permanent staff and 35 percent temporary staff. A shortage of suitable candidates (64 percent) and competition from other employers (54 percent) are cited as the biggest challenges when recruiting in the year ahead.
• Overall, salaries increased by 1.8 percent in the last 12 months and 71 percent of employers expect salaries among their staff to increase again in the year ahead.

Commenting on the report, Hays Ireland Managing Director Mike McDonagh said: “Pay growth, combined with pockets of double-digit salary increases, demonstrates that the competition for talent remains high. This year however, greater transparency about salaries is an issue that many employers must address. “Transparency around pay is an important issue for professionals. Many also perceive there to be gender pay gaps, which is negatively impacting on the attraction and retention of staff. “Greater pay transparency certainly has a central role to play in narrowing pay gaps between the genders. To address this issue, we would advise employers to introduce greater promotion and pay structure transparency within their organisation.” You can read the Hays Ireland Salary Trends & Recruiting Guide 2020 in full here.