Executives and senior managers in the UAE are on track for the largest pay bumps this year, with median base salary increases reaching as high as 3.9 per cent, according to Korn Ferry’s latest Global Total Rewards Pulse Survey.
Across all UAE employees, companies are budgeting for average base salary increases of 3.4 per cent in 2026, the survey found, with a median figure of 3.6 per cent. Middle management, supervisory and clerical roles are each in line for median increases of roughly 3.6 per cent, leaving senior tiers as the clear front-runners.
The research drew on responses from 5,512 organizations spanning 135 countries and was carried out in June 2026.
Looking ahead, the pace of pay growth is expected to hold rather than accelerate. Projections for 2027 point to an average rise of 3.3 per cent for the UAE workforce overall, with the median easing to 3.2 per cent. Senior management again leads, with a forecast median increase of 4.0 per cent, while middle management, supervisory and clerical staff are set to see raises settle in the 3.0 to 3.2 per cent range.
Mayank Patel, SVP at Adecco and Head of EEMEA, characterized the trajectory as measured and disciplined. He noted that employers are increasingly turning to performance-linked incentives and variable pay to counter inflation without abandoning cost restraint, channeling extra reward toward their strongest performers.
Merit-based awards told a similar story of restraint. UAE employees received merit increases averaging 3.3 per cent in 2026, with a median of 3.8 per cent distributed fairly consistently across executive, middle management and supervisory bands. Clerical workers came in marginally behind at a 3.1 per cent median.
Promotion pay moved differently. While the median promotion-related increase sat at a modest 1.5 per cent, the average climbed to 4.4 per cent — a gap that points to sizable raises concentrated among a smaller pool of promoted staff. Middle management and supervisory employees fared best here, with median promotion increases hitting 2.0 per cent.
Retention, meanwhile, emerged as a relative strength for UAE employers. Total staff turnover registered a median of 7.5 per cent and an average of 9.9 per cent over the most recent annual cycle. Voluntary departures ran lower still, at a 4.6 per cent median and a 6.7 per cent average — figures that place the UAE ahead of markets including the United States, the United Kingdom and several Asian economies tracked in the survey.
Those retention numbers sit against a wider set of pressures the report identifies for reward teams in 2026, among them how clearly pay decisions are explained to staff, whether managers are equipped to have those conversations, and the growing role of AI in shaping compensation strategy.
