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Article | Beyond Data

Compensation trends in the retail industry

2024 pay trends to watch

January 31, 2024

Explore insights into what retail organizations around the world are planning this year.
Compensation Strategy & Design
Beyond Data

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 Salary Budget Planning Report – Global (December)
Location Average voluntary attrition rate
Mexico 15%
Taiwan 17%
United Arab Emirates 5%
United Kingdom 12%
United States 12%

Major roles employers plan to hire for in the next 12 months
Percentage of organizations recruiting for key roles in information technology (IT), engineering and sales in key markets
Source: WTW 2023 Salary Budget Planning Report – Global (July)
Location IT                   Engineering Sales               
Mexico 47% 53% 44%
Taiwan 45% 47% 48%
United Arab Emirates 38% 50% 62%
United Kingdom 51% 54% 51%
United States 55% 52% 48%

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) with the highest pay across all industries
*Source: WTW Compensation Survey Reports (August-September 2023)
Rank Mexico China United Kingdom United States
1 Engineering IT development Corporate affairs/Communications Legal
2 IT Legal Project/Program management Data science and business intelligence
3 Environmental health and safety Project/Program management IT development IT development





A few skills will receive the highest pay premiums across regions
Skills that will demand the highest pay premiums across regions.
Source: 2023 Digital Transformation Practices report
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 programing 15%
North America Cryptography, distributed ledger development, smart contract programing 15%

Twenty-four percent increase in the number of unique organizations participating in WTW’s 2023 Retail industry surveys, and a 13% overall increase in data submissions.

Trends expected to shape 2024 rewards decisions

  1. 01

    Salary budgets are expected to be lower than 2023 levels but still higher than many countries have typically seen for a number of years. Organizations will need to be smart around how to differentiate within their populations when allocating the salary budget pot – considering market competitiveness and internal competitiveness – which of course includes pay transparency.

  2. 02

    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.

  3. 03

    Given increasing legislation around pay transparency, organizations must prepare now to meet regulatory requirements. Objective job and pay structures, robust data and analytics, and manager education are likely to help your organization confidently deliver a pay narrative to internal and external stakeholders.

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