By Alan Turner, Forth Capital
This year’s ‘Expatriate Market Pay Survey’ from ECA International has revealed expat pay packages to be at their highest in the east, and that Japan is the place where expatriates outside of the UK will be given the most sizeable financial package. The average package value for an expat middle manager is currently at 375,000 USD per annum making it the highest paying country, aside the UK, for international talent.
Expat pay packages are shown to be climbing in China, where the rising cost of living and increased pollution levels have reportedly made it more challenging to attract expat professionals. China moved up again in the global rank, and ahead of neighbouring Hong Kong in the process, making it the fourth highest in the Asia-Pacific region (after Japan comes Australia and India). The average overall package for an expat middle manager in China now stands at 276,000 USD, and 272,000 USD in Hong Kong.
The UK still tops the list globally, with the highest average pay packages for expatriates at 430,000 USD, but of course these packages will be enjoyed by non-UK nationals and thus the highest paid British Expats right now are clearly to be found in the Asian continent in general – backing up our own experience and opinion of expat earning levels at the current time.
The survey considers the total cost to companies, and thus incorporates the cost of benefit provision, as Mark Harrison at ECA has explained:
“Companies need to factor in the three main elements: the cash salary, benefits, and tax. Depending on how the package is put together, the cost of providing benefits can be considerable and even dwarf the cash salary element. This is the case in the UK, and also in Hong Kong and Singapore, but the tax component is small in Hong Kong and Singapore while it has a huge impact in the UK”, he said. All three of these countries have closely matched cash salary elements at the top of the scale.
The world’s main financial & business hubs rank as follows:
The annual survey by ECA takes in data from 320 companies and 10,000 employees across 167 countries.
Author's bio
Alan entered the international financial services sector when he relocated to Frankfurt in 2005 to take up an advisory support role. After 18 months in that role, Alan joined Forth Capital in Geneva during its launch phase to provide the existing advisory team with marketing and business development support. Alan was integral to the growth of the company in Geneva and later in the identification of potential new global markets.
After a short spell away from Forth Capital, spent launching a start-up marketing consultancy in the UK, Alan took on the global role of Business Development Director at the start of 2014. He now heads up the global sales and marketing function across all of Forth Capital’s branches, growing a team to support the company’s increasingly rapid growth.
Alan’s team facilitate the link between our advisers and our clients, handling enquiries and making every effort to ensure that those seeking advice are connected with the most appropriate member of our team to advise them on their specific financial planning requirements.
Now based in the Dubai office, Alan strives to bring Forth Capital’s high quality financial services offering to expatriates across the world through effective professional marketing channels and promotional work.
