A forecast issued today by Korn Ferry reveals that, adjusted for inflation, real-wage salaries globally are expected to grow of 1.0% in 2019, this is below the company’s 1.5% prediction for 2018.

“With inflation rising in most parts of the world, we’re seeing a cut in real-wage increases across the globe,” Bob Wesselkamper, Korn Ferry Global Head of Rewards and Benefits Solutions, said. “The percentage of salary increase or decrease will vary by role, industry, country and region, but one thing is clear, on average, employees are not seeing the same real pay growth they did even one year ago.”

Korn Ferry found that by region, the highest real wage growth is in Asia where salaries are forecast to increase by 5.6%, up from 5.4% last year. Inflation-adjusted real wage increases are expected to be 2.6%, the highest globally, but down from 2.8% last year.

Wages in the Pacific (Australia and New Zealand) are forecast to grow by 2.5%, and adjusted for inflation, the rise in real wages is predicted to be 0.3%.

In the UK, wages are predicted to increase 2.5%.  Combined with a 1.9% inflation rate, real wages are expected to increase by 0.6%. This is up more than a percentage point from 2018, when wages were predicted to decrease by -0.5%. Employees in two of Europe’s largest economies, France and Germany, are forecast to see real-wage rises of 0.5% and 1.0%, respectively.

According to the Korn Ferry forecast, employees in Eastern Europe are set to see an average salary increase of 6.6% in 2019. After taking inflation into account, real wages are forecast to rise by 2.0%, which is up from 1.4% last year. In Western Europe, workers are expected to see lower wage increases, with an average increase of 2.5%, and inflation-adjusted real wage increases of 0.7%. This is down from the predicted 0.9% real-wage growth of last year.

In North America, the average salary growth is predicted to be 2.8% in 2019, and when adjusted for inflation, the real-wage growth is expected to be 0.6%.

In the US, an average 3% pay increase is predicted, which is the same as last year and the year before. Adjusted for the expected 2.4% inflation rate in 2019, the real wage increase is forecast to be 0.6%, down from last year’s 1.0%.

Employees in Latin America are forecast to see a 4.6% gain in wages. With inflation, the real-wage increase in the region is expected to be 1.3%. This is down from 2.1% real-wage growth predictions from last year.

Although top-line salaries will increase by 7.7% in Africa, high inflation means the real increase is predicted to be only 0.9%. In Egypt, salaries are expected to increase by 15%, but a 14.4% inflation rate means employees will only see a 0.6% real-wage increase.

In the Middle East, wages are expected to increase by 3.6%, compared to 3.8% last year. Inflation-adjusted wage increases are predicted to be 0.4%, compared to 0.9% last year.

“While inflation indices are a solid benchmark for reviewing market trends in pay, we recommend that companies take a broader perspective by defining and agreeing upon their own measures of cost drivers, business strategy and local trading conditions,” said Benjamin Frost, Korn Ferry’s Global General Manager, Pay, said. “Compensation programs need to be regularly reviewed to make sure they align with changing business and market conditions.”