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Expat Pay Levels Differ Depending On Where They Work Abroad
A brand new survey by a firm which specialises in assisting companies to globally mobilise their workforce to live and work internationally has revealed that expats who want to go abroad to live and work need to think a bit longer and a bit harder about the nations and even the cities that they move to.This is because expat pay levels differ depending on where they work abroad – in one country they could be on 40% more than a local citizen in the form of a relocation package, in another they could miss out on added remuneration for their perceived hardship of having undertaken a global relocation.
The company behind the survey is Worldwide ERC, (ERC stands for Employment Relocation Council) – and they questioned respondents in leading employment hubs in the world such as London and Shanghai to determine which locations are more financially attractive for would-be expatriates.
Interestingly, despite being one of the highest cost locations in which to live, expatriates who relocate to London are unlikely to receive substantially more than their local counterparts in the form of basic salary and benefits. 45% of London based respondents admitted that their expatriate employees would be given a relocation or living allowance, but the benefit of this could soon be eroded by the non-dom fee which has just been introduced in the UK. This is a fee of GBP 30,000 payable by expatriates who have resided in the UK long term and who avoid paying UK taxation on their income and gains sourced externally to Great Britain.
Respondents in some of the leading international employee locations in the United States such as Denver said that around 40% of their expat staff could expect to see an added financial bonus in their pay packet for the inconvenience of relocation, whereas in Shanghai where there are estimated to be at least 70,000 expats working as well as 70,000 returned overseas Chinese citizens living and working, there was around a 75% chance that as an expat you would receive extra fiscal benefits for having relocated.
So it seems it literally pays to plan where in the world you want to live and work before committing to a relocation! Living and working abroad can be a fantastic challenge on many levels – but you don’t want it to be a financial challenge after all!