This is perhaps one of the most exciting things to look forward to for a corporate employee. The time when you have completed your performance review for the previous year and are waiting for your remuneration outcome in the current year i.e. percentage increase in annual salary and number of months of bonus. This can vary widely across different industries and between jobs in the same industry. It really depends on what your role is within the organisation.
In my case, I work in a support function within a local bank. While the hours and workload are more manageable, my earnings capacity will not be as high as front-line revenue generating staff. Then again, it is possible for me to earn more than some of them, just that my potential for earnings is not as high over the long-term. Though mine is probably more stable because front-line roles tends to get cut when the economy worsens. It’s always a trade-off and you have to decide what works for you.
The local bank performed relatively well last year in 2018 so the salary increases and bonuses this time round are generally better than the previous round. For myself, the percentage increase in annual salary is 3.5% and the number of months of bonus is 3. Compared to my wife, her percentage increase in annual salary was 2% and the number of months of bonus was 1.5.
For the first time in our 10 years of working, I finally received a bigger absolute amount of bonus compared to my wife. And it’s not because the pay gap in terms of base salary between us is narrowing (if anything, it’s widening). It took a bad year with her bank and a good year with my bank for this to happen. I was joking with my wife on how new this feeling of earning more than her in at least one aspect of my pay is to me.
I’m happy for my wife to keep earning and getting promoted more than me. Especially now when we still do not have kids. As we do plan to start a family, I’m going to write more eventually about how important we think this is when you consider the impact to her career over time on having kids. Which is negative in the short to medium term and positive in the medium to long term. So knowing when to career cruise and drive is essential to her success as a working mum.