RI's blue-collar workers get highest pay increase

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian blue-collar workers received the highest salary increase in 2000 as compared to their counterparts in other Asian countries, according to a survey by management consulting firm Hewitt Associates.

The firm said that the average base salary increase of employees in Indonesia ranged from 13.3 percent to 14.8 percent, with blue-collar workers receiving the highest percentage increase and senior management or executives receiving the lowest.

"The big increase for blue-collar workers is contrary to compensation practices in other Asian countries, where in most cases the largest salary increases go to the senior management group," Hewitt said in a statement.

Hewitt Associates' principal and head of its Southeast Asia operations Ravi Virmani said that as the country's economy develops and demand for managerial and technical skills grows, this trend will eventually shift.

"For the year 2001, the surveyed companies projected that those in the professional/specialist group will receive the highest base salary increase," he said in the statement.

Hewitt said that salary increases vary greatly between service and manufacturing companies, citing an average increase of 19.2 percent for executives in the service industry, while in the manufacturing sector the raise only averaged 9.8 percent for the same positions.

The disparity held true for all surveyed employee groups, except for blue-collar workers where the difference narrowed to 17.4 percent for service and 14.9 percent for manufacturing, it said.

"This shows the current Indonesian situation where companies in the service sector became the first to recover from the monetary crisis," Hewitt Associates' country manager Budi Kuncoro said in the statement.

This year, Hewitt Associates' predicted a slightly lower salary increase for companies in the service sector, while those in the manufacturing sector will receive a similar increase to last year's.

Hewitt Associates surveyed 16 foreign companies, 13 locally- owned companies and nine joint venture companies in Indonesia. (tnt)