Salaries spike as skills shortage bites

SKILL SHORTAGES have
played havoc with salary
increases in the clearing and
forwarding sector over the
past two years with basic
salary increases averaging just
over 17%.
That’s the finding of a
recent remueration survey in
the clearing and forwarding
industry just released by P-E
Corporate Services and Lee
Botti Associates (LBA).
“Increases in total
employment costs which
include fringe benefits and
incentive pay averaged
slightly more than 19% over
the same period. Year on
year increases in basic salary
averaged 8.4%, almost one
percentage point higher than
all sector rates,” ” LBA MD
Lee Botti told FTW.
“The two year analysis
shows that cumulative
increases over the two year
period within this sector
have been more than two
percentage points higher
than the 15% average
increase across all sectors
over the same period,” said
principal remuneration
consultant for PE Corporate
Services Adele Slotar.
“Increases are well ahead
of inflation which has
averaged 12% over the same
period.”
According to Slotar a
differential of between two
and three percentage points
between salary increases and
inflation is not uncommon
in South Africa and is largely
attributable to ongoing
severe and chronic shortages
of key technical and
professional skills.
“While particularly
acute in South Africa it is a
phenomenon which is also
found in other developing
economies – notably
countries such as Chile and
Argentina in South America,
the Pacific Rim and parts of
former Eastern Europe.”
Survey results confirm
that the high levels of skills
shortages in the c&f sector
are most acute in Gauteng
with salary increases in this
region leading those in other
regions.
This is also evident from
regional differentials in pay
scales across the 40 plus
specialist industry positions
covered by the survey.
Market rates of
remuneration in both Kwa-
Zulu Natal and the Western
Cape lag behind Gauteng
rates by approximately
12% with the Eastern Cape
trailing Gauteng by 17%.
As another indicator of
pay pressure in this sector,
well over 90% of the leading
organisations surveyed now
include incentives in the
pay mix at executive level,
over 80% do so at middle
management level and over
75% at lower salaried staff
levels. These percentages
also rank above market
averages.
Lee Botti & Associates
founded the survey in 1983
in response to clients’ needs.
“Since 2003 we have been
producing it in conjunction
with PE Corporate Services
who are specialists in the field
of remuneration,” said Botti.