Rumour has it that the education allowance and housing allowance will be returned to previous levels or maybe better, but in terms of basic salary increase it's anyone's guess....

which properly will not cover the recent fuel price hike for daily transports to and from school

Various email have been dispensed promising “a basic salary increase” and the potential of “allowance and benefit enhancements” at EK but we are well into July and we wait patiently to see what these increases may be. The importance of this particular salary review cannot be overstated.

The UAE Inflation rate in April was already 4.6% and climbing, with Transport up 28.8% and Food up 8.6%. The Government has already announced a social welfare program for Emiratis to apply for an “Inflation Allowance” from September. This, to my mind, indicates that they expect inflation to be high and remain so for some time. They are smart enough to prepare for this. Other countries are going to see the wrath of their populations and try to blame it on any convenient scapegoat, play the old game of media distraction, while political parties tout socialism to populations baying for communistic ideas.

Back here, I doubt any salary and benefit increases will aggregate to more than 5%. I hope I am wrong. However, much less than 10% will almost assure a continuing downward remuneration spiral, in real terms. Nothing new here, but I think the downward slope is going to be particularly steep and the reality of this has not really set in.

The majority of employees here were either not born or too young to remember the inflation of the late 70s and early 80s. It ran at over 10% for a few years. Right now the dawning inflation provokes exclamation indignation and frustration. However, what is coming is uncertainty, desperation, and finally despair. The reality just has not hit home yet as there have been 40 years of a relatively benign economic background and tame inflation for most, and they have not actually felt the effects of sustained rampant inflation with a rapidly lagging take-home packet.

Right now it is in the abstract. In two years it will be a painful reality. While the UAE, admirably, protects its citizens better than most Western Governments, there is no social security net here to dampen the effects for any ex-pat. Nor should there be. We can come and go as we please.

I look forward to any increase but, unless substantiative, it will bring no real relief. In a year’s time, we will all be peddling much harder to pay the bills while watching pensions and most asset classes depreciate rapidly in real terms. The future will look black and a career in aviation will seem a pointless endeavor for survival, let alone retirement.

Central Banks have had the printing presses running overtime for years and then with full afterburner for an overhyped pandemic. Most of this went to the already rich, through a myriad of mechanisms, mostly involving some form of corruption. Some got paid to the working class to do nothing while remaining “safe” at home. But now we are all about to pay for what is likely to prove the biggest economic blunder in history.

“By a continuing process of inflation, Governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens.” – John Maynard Keynes (Economist)

Contract Adjustment Letters are out.

Looks like a piddly four percent rise! Looks like just a step up the ladder rather than an increase in Basic! That’s going to work well then🙄

Step (3%) + 1%
increase housing allowance (which means nothing to all those forced back into company accommodation)

Totally underwhelmed!

That would be it…

A 1% rise when inflation is rampant in the UAE👎🏻

Something you say a lot White Kite…. If you don’t like it leave !!!

Makes sense now why they didn’t want to tell us in advance!!

So if pilots got 3% step +1% it will be Interesting to see if this is what everyone got or whether other grades / departments got anything different?

To me, this is a clear sign they want people with seniority to leave and they want to attract new joiners by increasing living out allowance.
They will attract plenty…
What a slap in the face also to all the ones who were renting until last year and had to rejoin MH within short notice…. Pretty evil…

Another happy day in sandy LaLaland!

I still like my job thanks joe… If and when the scales tip too far I’ll take my own advise!

So the minuscule pay rise has come and gone and we are all notably underwhelmed!
By my reckoning I’m still owed 2 months salary by Emirates.
We got the “out of the blue” payment of 1 months salary in January which covered 2 months of the 6 months on half pay. However no explanation was given about the payment, why we were getting it or what it covered!
So EK have still not covered the other 4 months of half pay ie 2 months salary.
are they hoping we will forget?
Is it legal under UAE law to just pay someone half salary and not pay it back later when you have the funds available?

it speaks volumes about Emirates and how Emirates employees are valued when paying back reduced salaries has such a low priority?

You are always just a minion here
Doesn't matter how many bars or stars you have on your epaulettes , you are a foreign migrant worker and will do as you are told!

You are correct. Halas, what to do? More patience needed.
However it seems at the sistercompany across the same stakeholder handled it quite nicely. Qmk.

Got 2 questions for someone at EK now:

1) what’s the law now regarding living with your girlfriend? If I took company accommodation, would it be an issue with front door security etc?

2) with the new accommodation allowance of 15500 AED, can a guy with his girlfriend get something decent in the Marina including bills etc for example and still have some left over?

Thanks :ok:

look for accom in propertyfinder to get prices
look for RERA
rent index calculator
also for the current laws regarding rent and ownership
Don get trapped by the prices you see to get a place as the rent index will tell what the price will be for the following year.
for e.g. the price is 100k Aed per year and the rent index says your 50k below the average index, your price hike to the following year will be min 20% increase. In other words the closer you are to the index in the first place the less the change will be in the following years and makes a more stable rent agreement.
there had been many cases where rent hike after the first year forced people the relocate after just one year.
landlords often set a very low price in the beginning to fill the apartment and increase in the following year to get closer to the index.
comparing offered price with the index is essential to predict future changes.
that’s why it’s important to have look into the current laws on the RERA website

I have been told that pay with never keep up with inflation yet inflation is set to go nuts.

Who has told you that ?

To be fair - that problem is not specific to Emirates

Pilots are leaving Emirates in droves, many not paying their 'rejoining bond' and some without giving the 3 months notice.

I wonder why..............

Interesting article from an EK pilot who spoke out in BUSINESS INSIDER recently.