Workers all over the world should brace themselves for what human resource experts are referring to as “inflation-adjusted wage increases” in 2017.  In 2016, workers received wage increases of about 2.7 percent but should only expect an average of 2.3 percent in the coming year.

Luckily for North America, the rapid rise in market pay in certain countries over the last few years is helping dissuade US businesses from outsourcing jobs to other countries.  Moving jobs to countries like China typically benefits the US because they are low-wage nations, but this wage gap is closing quickly.  Ultimately, the case for sending work overseas is becoming less clear from a financial perspective. Next year alone, salaries in Asia are expected to increase by 6.1 percent.  Latin American workers are forecasted to see the largest salary increases in 2017 at a solid 7 percent.   

The US and Canada will see slower salary increases overall when compared to other regions, according to regional and country-specific global pay findings released earlier this month.

The data comes from Hay Group’s client database and analyzes pay information for over 20 million job holders across 110 countries.  One HR expert explained that while salary increases will be lower this year, there will still be salary increases – this is really a glass half full or a glass half empty kind of scenario.