Emerging countries hold back on wages. To reveal it is the'International Business Report 2013 by Grant Thornton, a survey on a sample of 3.450 entrepreneurs and managers in 44 countries around the world. In the Bric countries (Brazil, Ruussia, India and China, the four emerging giants of the world), for example, the share of companies that have granted salary increases higher than inflation has halved, from 21% in the fourth quarter of 2011 to 11% in the same period of 2012.
The same goes for the Asia-Pacific area (from 20% to 12%). There is also a strong reduction in Latin America, where, however, the values remain rather high (from 32% to 20%). Data that represent a sharp turnaround compared to recent trends, which saw these countries, especially China and India, granting salary increases of between 10 and 20% per year.
The question to be asked at this point is the impact of this restraint in wages on the level of attraction of the labor market in emerging countries for an Italian who is expatriating. It is foreseeable that mature managers, who will maintain very advantageous salaries, will be affected the least. Young people will suffer the most from the slowdown, but they will be able to enjoy the tax advantages that these countries can offer compared to Italy.
The exceptions in this discussion are recent graduates: the gap between the salaries of a young graduate from a prestigious university between China and Italy remains very high.
