Compensation across all global industries

Attraction and retention remain challenging for organizations worldwide

Organizations grapple with sourcing talent for major roles at every level

Average voluntary attrition rate among key markets worldwide. Source: WTW 2023 Global Compensation Survey Reports
Location	Average voluntary attrition rate
Brazil	8%
Taiwan	11%
United Arab Emirates	7%
United Kingdom	12%
United States	11%

Major roles employers plan to hire for in the next 12 months

Percentage of organizations recruiting for key roles in information technology, engineering and sales in key markets. Source: WTW 2023 Salary Budget Planning Report
Location	Information technology	Engineering	Sales	Technical skills trade
Brazil	57%	54%	47%	52%
Taiwan	51%	57%	58%	38%
United Arab Emirates	56%	58%	50%	45%
United Kingdom	61%	51%	43%	37%
United States	64%	51%	35%	45%

Salary budget increases continued in 2023

Because salary impacts an organization's ability to attract and retain talent, this pattern is expected to continue in 2024, but employers will be cautious about allocating their salary budget.

Organizations also granted higher bonus payouts for 2023, and are expected to repeat it in 2024.

Employers (60% or more) in every industry worldwide have taken or are considering taking the following measures:

Compensation review of specific employee populations
Full compensation review for all employees
Targeted increases for specific employee populations
Hire people higher in relevant salary range

Top 3 functions at professional level (P3) with the highest pay across all industries

Top 3 functions at professional level (P3) ranked according to pay across all industries. Source: WTW 2023 Global Compensation Survey Reports (August-September 2023)
Rank	Brazil	China	United Kingdom	United States
1	Geosciences	Data Science and Business Intelligence	Legal	IT Development
2	Research	Legal	IT development	Business Consulting
3	Product Development	IT development	Business Consultancy	Research

A few skills will receive the highest pay premiums across regions

Skills that will demand the highest pay premiums across regions. Source: WTW 2023 Global Compensation Survey Reports
Region	Skills	Pay premium (median in percent of base salary)
Asia Pacific	AI/machine learning frameworks	15%
Europe, Middle East and Africa	AI/machine learning frameworks	20%
Latin America	Cryptography, distributed ledger development, smart contract programming	15%
North America	Cryptography, distributed ledger development, smart contract programming	15%

3% increase in the number of unique organizations participating in WTW’s 2023 general industry surveys, and a 5% overall increase in data submissions.

Trends expected to shape 2024 rewards decisions

01

Economic volatility and uncertainty could lead to lower investment levels and economic growth, which will force organizations to review their workforces and be more cautious about increasing salaries (among many other things).
02

Organizations will look beyond pay and take a holistic view of total rewards to create employee experiences that attract and retain the talent needed to drive business objectives.
03

To effectively compete against industry peers, compensation and HR professionals will seek a more sophisticated understanding and application of data in their strategic total rewards practices and policies.