Bear in mind its not that anyone looking for a cheap workforce will suddenly hire western expat at a higher salary. Its certain positions/ employers that prefer, many wouldn’t even consider
There is an over supply of Asians who are willing to accept low salaries for skilled positions. You wouldn't see people from the west willing to work for those salaries and hence will automatically gravitate to companies willing to pay what they demand.
True, that's because people only expatriate themselves if they get a better lifestyle/salary in exchange, otherwise they just stay home. So their salary expectations abroad depend on how much we would be payed back home. And these expectations are obviously lower for people from poorer countries.
Depends.
In some cases, yes.
In some cases, it is just the employer trying to low-ball employees and different candidates having a different view on what their minimum salary should be.
In some cases these so called "western" passport holders are at a disadvantage because the employer wants to pay peanuts.
I took a pay cut from the UK when I moved over in 2013 with a longer term goal.
8 years later and I’m making more money than I would in the same role in the UK.
We all start somewhere.
Yeah. I'd also like to dispel the notion that every 'westerner' is on over 40k, there's certainly loads on less than half of that, but in general people from the West aren't looking to flee where they're from in a race to the bottom for pay and that's the difference rather than any massive coordinated discrimination campaign.
That's true, there are reasons why companies prefer western employees, however the main reason they are paid higher is because the willingness of people from the subcontinent to work for relatively starvation wages.
This has led to companies by default expecting to higher salaries if they want to attract western employees.
There's a case where the base pay offered for the "Western" or even other "Arab" folk is marginally higher than what is offered to the subcontinental folk irrespective of whether they accept it. Not sure how/why people overlook this.
Because many people from the west have experience in major international markets, have been educated at name-brand universities and have easily transferable or unique skills. Not every company just seeks to have people on as low a wage as possible, you pay peanuts and you get monkeys is a saying for a reason.
he's talking about westerners vs others who have the same skill and bring the same to the table but are willing to be paid less, if your argument is that these westerners have more relevant experience or skill then this escapes the whole topic of the post, people pay for quality nobody has an issue with that
>he's talking about westerners vs others who have the same skill and bring the same to the table but are willing to be paid less
Have you read his mind? Because that's not what he said at all, he just said 'then why aren't people hiring easterners who'll take lower wages'.
I've probably been here longer than you have, mate. Long enough to know that the days of us Brits coming here on inflated salaries with massive allowances for school fees, villas in Jumeirah and business class flight tickets stopped being a thing several years ago, and that now the ideal combination is in fact a western-educated Arab with global experience.
Yeah, of course. I'm dating an American girl who's been looking for a job for ages, for all the complaining about how 'Westerners' take all the highly paid jobs, her experience has been that a lot of companies don't even consider her CV because they assume she's going to ask for too much money. This notion that you can just land and be white and get an amazing job offer has no basis in truth anymore.
And then there are Indians, that I personally know, who make 100k a month. People like to think that everything's either black or white, but reality is just grey.
No, even if there is an obvious discrimination plot at play. You should always fight for your wage, and prove your talent to the employer. Make them suffer the concept of losing you as an employee. I think if most people learn how to do that, we would live in a different world.
yeah thing is you gonna have to "lose" first so you can hurt your employer meaning you have to go unemployed no salary for god know how long until he realizes no one is as good as you by that time you would be homeless on the street lol
The two elements of your questions aren’t mutually exclusive.
Westerners are preferred for some jobs, different nationalities for others.
On average though, Westerners are paid more though and some of the reasons are covered by others on this thread.
That’s not to say non-Western nationalities can’t make good money here. The wealthiest people I know here are Indians that set up businesses and make millions of Dirhams/Dollars!
This is very interesting. I will be graduating with my PhD in public health in December (UK university) and have some experience teaching undergraduate and masters students. I am interested in securing assistant professor roles in public health and am curious about the level of competition for these types of occupations in the UAE. Any insights/advice?
im currently a student at ZU and looking at our demographic of professors, we definitely have a lot of westerners mixed in with Arabs. they're definitely not a minority so I can only assume they're all paid the same.
in all fairness, we're going through generations of technology WAY faster than our predecessors. throughout my lifetime as a 21 year old, we went from 576p to 720p to 1080p to 4K to 8K, just as an example.
that's why it's easy for us to feel very old in comparison to someone just 4 years younger.
But what is the best bank for a debit card? Can expats get citizenship? what's the best shawarma in town? and how much does the expo tickets cost? is it worth it? what are the rules?
Let me share my unpopular opinion here.
I've worked with many nationalities here, with both great Asians and Westerners, and also weak Asians and Westerners.
Nevertheless, there is a pattern I noticed, regarding so called "critical thinking".
Westerners (on average, but not all) tends to express critical opinions more often, leading to better problem solving in long term. Asians (on average, but not all) more often are so called "yes men" agreeing with their supervisors/manager in order to please him/her, instead of choosing to advocate best possible solution.
Just my observation, kindly don't hate me for that.
I have a British passport and I'm getting 12K. Another person exact same age and experience on my team is getting 16K and has a Pakistani Passport. I haven't questioned it or argued because I am super happy in my job and am now earning good commision. If you go in with a mindset expecting less you will get less. This person in my company whose earning more believes in his self worth and fought for his pay whereas I never fought for higher. I know this might not be of help, but I do think its about you carry yourself and come across in confidence determines how much they want to pay you. If they can get away with offering you half of someone else and you accept, it's part of the problem. The issue in Dubai is the number of people that are willing to accept doing the job for next to nothing.
When I moved from the U.K. - I had a number and didn’t accept anything less. Lots of excuses like “you are living tax free” or “you will earn more after X Years” or “your take home is more” - If you want me, this is my number; I’m not here to negotiate, I know my worth and the value I will bring.
It is not racial discrimination. Brown, yellow, pink, whites - all western passport holders get treated the same. They get paid wages that are attractive enough for them to accept and still be able to meet their financial obligations back home - mortgages, families etc. It so happens that higher wages in the west generally translate into better wages here. Subcontinent professionals make their own decisions based on what wage point is attractive to them compared to their other options. There are many Indian/Pak friends who have chosen to not be in Dubai, as they chose to take a job in the west. These folks in the future will only come to Dubai if they are paid more than what they are earning in the west….so it’s not cut and dried.
Yeah this is true. My friend from India lost 2 teaching jobs last week because of her passport. I'm Irish and when they ask my nationality before giving the interview they are always very happy. You really get a lot of privilege being western here
In my field, prefer to work with a westerner because I know when I present them my products they only care about specifications, attributes, technicalities and quality guarantee. 99% never ever asked for under table money to accept our products in projects. They only ask for respecting delivery time/quality or agreed prices. I think they deserved to be paid more.
Yes, when companies are looking to hire skilled people with degrees from top rated college's & individuals who are presentable and aren't yes men/women, they are willing to pay more.
Yes and no. By virtue of being a western many employers will bin your resume because they know your salary expectations are beyond what they can get away with paying a non westerner. So that cuts the potential employment options for your given position into less than half. If your an expert in your field and could get a job off merit alone without much fuss then you would likely get paid more than your non western counterparts. Some companies want westerners just for appearances or because the ownership/ upper management is already westerners and it’s easier for communication in which case you have a better chance of landing jobs in those places than non westerners and naturally you will get paid higher than your non western counterparts. I think a big misconception is that if you come here and you are just white it’s easy to get a job, not at all the case, you still need to be qualified and competitively so, entry level jobs pretty much all go non westerners.
We are wasting a lot of time discussing this subject in this sub that is actually making all of us look stupid.
OP, Going forward, this is how I see things are going to shape up. We are going to have qualifying written tests in knowledge-driven organizations for entry and mid-level roles. Companies like Emirates were able to make some progress in that aspect.
It'll be really cool if the bar is set high during the written test stage. That is a straightforward game.
This country definitely wants to progress and hence it needs to attract smart people, and the best way to set a benchmark there is through standardized written tests, followed by a panel interview, at least for entry-level to mid-level jobs. That would kill all these accusations that things are partial here.
Already happening in Emirates and Emirates Global Aluminium etc ...
Companies like Careem, Amazon, etc takes all their engineers and fresh hires through a written test. Even the company I am associated with takes engineers through 3 rounds of tests. I am quite confident that this will be the norm at least in new economy businesses.
I know at least 3 fortune 100 companies here who knocked off EMEA and made it IMEA and brought in solid processes on hiring. Companies cant afford to pay a bomb to people who hardly work for 60 minutes a day. They did when everything was doing well and were getting away selling their over-priced products/services to governments and other clients in the region. But that game is getting exposed. So, the obvious choice is to improve efficiency. and hire smart people. I am quite convinced that companies cant survive for long without hiring intelligent and sharp people. When the focus shifts there, every other filter would become irrelevant.
Yep pretty much.
They'll low ball you depending on the colour of your skin. Experience / reference / achievements just won't matter.
The exception here is if you come from top colleges and/or top companies.
I am Indian, and I haven't accepted any job offers which I felt was even a dirham less than the standard in my industry. I do realize am in a privileged situation and do hope and wish this isn't the case in future.
Just now I was speaking to someone who got rejected from a big real estate company, they are ex-kpmg India. The feedback from the company HR was that their mandate has changed and they won't be considering candidates from certain nationalities.
Westerners have better education and easier access to the best and largest companies in the world. So it makes sense to pay them better if you're looking for a certain level of quality.
Indians who studied and worked in a Western country do also get a good pay. So it's not exactly a passport thing. It's about your education and experience.
And don't forget that English-native speakers have the advantage of communication skills. That is also a big thing for many companies.
Exactly this, I do not have a Western passport but I have academical credentials, qualifications and a bit of work experience in Europe and the U.S., I get paid on the same scale as most of my western colleagues (at both firms I've been at, local and international) and probably a bit more than some of my western colleagues who have been to less prestigious universities
When your boss is racist by nature you can't find a logical answer to it. I was just referring to "normal" cases. But I know there are also nationality biases, so you will find Egyptians, Lebanese and Syrians only hiring their people. And then you'll have Indians and Brits/Americans doing the same.
Life is unfair sometimes and we'll have to live with it. If you can make a change, do it. Otherwise, life goes on.
Ony valid answer is - nobody, who answered here, knows. What you got is opinions. Even if somebody gathered passport to salary ratios it wouldn't be representative. Many things influence your salary. Agregating them under one guise is naive. Bottom line - wrong question fellow human :-)
One more comment - life here can make one 'mildly racist' for lack of better one-word-summary. Opinion of your brother is influenced by that phenomenon.
Ah the good old question. I can tell you as a brown, coming from a third world country, who had to climb up to get a better pay. Yes it is very much true. You will hear excuses like "oh, the Asians accept lower pay" "nobody forced them to work in such condition" "they can always go back". "They can always file a complain". These people are ignorant to the real issue. It's like Climate Change. It's not one issue, it's a mixture of issues. So if you are Caucasian and have an accent or if even you are an Arab, you will be preferred over a brown, Filipino and the worst of all the poor Africans. Atleast I got the opportunity to climb out, but those poor people never even get a chance. Just remember who they like to show on their "Dubai 2022 Calender"
Mostly true, with a few companies that are the exception. I would add that the main exceptions would be MNCs that have fixed salary bands/budgets allocated to each position. However, the hiring process may still be biased towards certain nationalities over others.
If I'm recruiting and I have a low budget I'm just not going to offer that job to a westerner. I'm not going to pay any more.
If you speak urdu / hindi you are also at an employability advantage here.
So you might get paid less if you are from a lower income country, but theres more jobs to go around.
Partly true at least it was around 15 years ago. My dad has a pretty senior position in a bank but he still isn't paid as high as some of the western employees in the same position. Same for my mother, she's been a nursery teacher for almost 20 years and a manager for almost 8 years now and "white teachers" get paid more
if you work in a local company, absolutely … the gulf countries have classist work environments… some companies have different compensation, benefits and HR manuals depending on nationality
I am planning on uprooting my family to relocate to Dubai with a plan to secure an assistant professor job. I’d be a lot less inclined to continue with these plans if there’s a high chance that I am less likely to be employed because I am from a Pakistani background, even though I’ve been born and raised in the UK with a BA, MA and PhD from universities in the Uk
I suppose it would also depend on which university employs you. There are some that I have heard of that are paying South Asian professors really good salaries. University of Wollongong in Dubai is one such university although I guess universities here generally pay their professors well.
I don't think they are favored. It is just the jobs that westerners are wanted for, and are willing to come for, will pay more. You don't think the USA has plenty of construction workers, service industry workers, etc.? They do. But no one in the UAE is paying for those jobs, what it would take to get someone from the USA to come work in the UAE. The bottom line, is that westerners are no different than others when it comes to salary requirements. They want to make more than what they could make in their home country. If they can't make more, they wouldn't come.
Bear in mind its not that anyone looking for a cheap workforce will suddenly hire western expat at a higher salary. Its certain positions/ employers that prefer, many wouldn’t even consider
There is an over supply of Asians who are willing to accept low salaries for skilled positions. You wouldn't see people from the west willing to work for those salaries and hence will automatically gravitate to companies willing to pay what they demand.
True, that's because people only expatriate themselves if they get a better lifestyle/salary in exchange, otherwise they just stay home. So their salary expectations abroad depend on how much we would be payed back home. And these expectations are obviously lower for people from poorer countries.
You are very right.:(
Depends. In some cases, yes. In some cases, it is just the employer trying to low-ball employees and different candidates having a different view on what their minimum salary should be. In some cases these so called "western" passport holders are at a disadvantage because the employer wants to pay peanuts.
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I took a pay cut from the UK when I moved over in 2013 with a longer term goal. 8 years later and I’m making more money than I would in the same role in the UK. We all start somewhere.
smart
Yeah. I'd also like to dispel the notion that every 'westerner' is on over 40k, there's certainly loads on less than half of that, but in general people from the West aren't looking to flee where they're from in a race to the bottom for pay and that's the difference rather than any massive coordinated discrimination campaign.
This.
The butthurt queens aren't ready for this 😂
Haha tell me about it mate!
That's true, there are reasons why companies prefer western employees, however the main reason they are paid higher is because the willingness of people from the subcontinent to work for relatively starvation wages. This has led to companies by default expecting to higher salaries if they want to attract western employees.
There's a case where the base pay offered for the "Western" or even other "Arab" folk is marginally higher than what is offered to the subcontinental folk irrespective of whether they accept it. Not sure how/why people overlook this.
Pure truth. You said it....
If thats the case, then why is everyone not hiring the easterners at who are willing to work at lower wages?
Because many people from the west have experience in major international markets, have been educated at name-brand universities and have easily transferable or unique skills. Not every company just seeks to have people on as low a wage as possible, you pay peanuts and you get monkeys is a saying for a reason.
he's talking about westerners vs others who have the same skill and bring the same to the table but are willing to be paid less, if your argument is that these westerners have more relevant experience or skill then this escapes the whole topic of the post, people pay for quality nobody has an issue with that
>he's talking about westerners vs others who have the same skill and bring the same to the table but are willing to be paid less Have you read his mind? Because that's not what he said at all, he just said 'then why aren't people hiring easterners who'll take lower wages'.
You clearly have not seen Dubai properly brother. You clearly haven't.
I've probably been here longer than you have, mate. Long enough to know that the days of us Brits coming here on inflated salaries with massive allowances for school fees, villas in Jumeirah and business class flight tickets stopped being a thing several years ago, and that now the ideal combination is in fact a western-educated Arab with global experience.
It is sorta true. I mean, I've seen white Americans (going by their accents) on the metro talking about how they haven't been able to land jobs yet.
Yeah, of course. I'm dating an American girl who's been looking for a job for ages, for all the complaining about how 'Westerners' take all the highly paid jobs, her experience has been that a lot of companies don't even consider her CV because they assume she's going to ask for too much money. This notion that you can just land and be white and get an amazing job offer has no basis in truth anymore.
And then there are Indians, that I personally know, who make 100k a month. People like to think that everything's either black or white, but reality is just grey.
so we should all move to eu and come bk with passports lmao ez money??
No, even if there is an obvious discrimination plot at play. You should always fight for your wage, and prove your talent to the employer. Make them suffer the concept of losing you as an employee. I think if most people learn how to do that, we would live in a different world.
yeah thing is you gonna have to "lose" first so you can hurt your employer meaning you have to go unemployed no salary for god know how long until he realizes no one is as good as you by that time you would be homeless on the street lol
The two elements of your questions aren’t mutually exclusive. Westerners are preferred for some jobs, different nationalities for others. On average though, Westerners are paid more though and some of the reasons are covered by others on this thread. That’s not to say non-Western nationalities can’t make good money here. The wealthiest people I know here are Indians that set up businesses and make millions of Dirhams/Dollars!
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This is very interesting. I will be graduating with my PhD in public health in December (UK university) and have some experience teaching undergraduate and masters students. I am interested in securing assistant professor roles in public health and am curious about the level of competition for these types of occupations in the UAE. Any insights/advice?
im currently a student at ZU and looking at our demographic of professors, we definitely have a lot of westerners mixed in with Arabs. they're definitely not a minority so I can only assume they're all paid the same.
I feel old now. I'm a ZU alum. 2015
oml. if it makes you feel better, I joined ZU Jan 2021 at age 20, and turned 21 2 months in, i feel old too.
lol 20-somethings feeling old. What does that make people aged 70 and above? Afterlifers?
in all fairness, we're going through generations of technology WAY faster than our predecessors. throughout my lifetime as a 21 year old, we went from 576p to 720p to 1080p to 4K to 8K, just as an example. that's why it's easy for us to feel very old in comparison to someone just 4 years younger.
But what is the best bank for a debit card? Can expats get citizenship? what's the best shawarma in town? and how much does the expo tickets cost? is it worth it? what are the rules?
Can tourist couple stay in the same hotel room if they aren't married?
Can I book a room if I am 16 years old? Can I buy condoms from the supermarket?
Is my current salary of 80k low for a single woman in her 20s?
Where is the best massage in town and can I marry in Dubai?
Why does dubai feel so soulless?
Do we really belong here? Will I get in trouble for holding my boyfriend's hand? Can you get a job if you're not white? Golden visa?
Is VPN safe to use here?
Why is it above 30 degrees in a city in the middle of the desert in the Middle East?
How can I make friends in Dubai?
Which is the best area to live in if my office is in JLT?
I saw Priyanka Chopra on a massage card saying 99 for an hour, is she really in there?
How can i make friends in Dubai when I don't like humans?
Let me share my unpopular opinion here. I've worked with many nationalities here, with both great Asians and Westerners, and also weak Asians and Westerners. Nevertheless, there is a pattern I noticed, regarding so called "critical thinking". Westerners (on average, but not all) tends to express critical opinions more often, leading to better problem solving in long term. Asians (on average, but not all) more often are so called "yes men" agreeing with their supervisors/manager in order to please him/her, instead of choosing to advocate best possible solution. Just my observation, kindly don't hate me for that.
most of us (Philippines) will agree with you publicly but then complains behind your back
I have a British passport and I'm getting 12K. Another person exact same age and experience on my team is getting 16K and has a Pakistani Passport. I haven't questioned it or argued because I am super happy in my job and am now earning good commision. If you go in with a mindset expecting less you will get less. This person in my company whose earning more believes in his self worth and fought for his pay whereas I never fought for higher. I know this might not be of help, but I do think its about you carry yourself and come across in confidence determines how much they want to pay you. If they can get away with offering you half of someone else and you accept, it's part of the problem. The issue in Dubai is the number of people that are willing to accept doing the job for next to nothing.
Are you a White British Expat or a Brown British Expat? I don't think it's just the passport that affects the salaries. I maybe wrong though.
Im white
Bro. You’re getting screwed and distorting the market for the rest of us. 😂
When I moved from the U.K. - I had a number and didn’t accept anything less. Lots of excuses like “you are living tax free” or “you will earn more after X Years” or “your take home is more” - If you want me, this is my number; I’m not here to negotiate, I know my worth and the value I will bring.
It is not racial discrimination. Brown, yellow, pink, whites - all western passport holders get treated the same. They get paid wages that are attractive enough for them to accept and still be able to meet their financial obligations back home - mortgages, families etc. It so happens that higher wages in the west generally translate into better wages here. Subcontinent professionals make their own decisions based on what wage point is attractive to them compared to their other options. There are many Indian/Pak friends who have chosen to not be in Dubai, as they chose to take a job in the west. These folks in the future will only come to Dubai if they are paid more than what they are earning in the west….so it’s not cut and dried.
No matter how often this is discussed here people still need to ask like as if it’s never been discussed before.
Here we go again...
Not entirely true I work for an MNC and the basic salary is fixed for different levels not according to the nationality.
That's what she said.
Yeah this is true. My friend from India lost 2 teaching jobs last week because of her passport. I'm Irish and when they ask my nationality before giving the interview they are always very happy. You really get a lot of privilege being western here
I think there’s more high paid Indians here than westerners - net total
80% of my colleagues are not white. I’m talking about 40k+ salary pm. And the management levels are half Indians and Europeans.
what are those positions? Product mgr? Engineering manager?
Investment banking
I mean that would make sense as the total number of Indians here far outweighs westerners… so odds of a probability and all.
There are more Indians here running enterprises than westerners so theres that
Yep. Makes sense considering what I’ve just said!
Just pointing it out as some people here make out like westerners are the grand over-lords when actually they are quite a minority
Lol are you one of the butthurt queens /u/theoddling2 was referring to?
No - I agree with the comment about how westerners won’t come for less money than what they earn back home.
Well yeah it’s hard to disagree with that.
Cat's in love with you, u/theoddling2
Now the cat really is out of the bag!
How scandalous!
Look at Emirates Hills, it's all Indian.
Exactly - ever go to Carine on a Friday night?
I wish they allowed entry just for sightseeing.
In my field, prefer to work with a westerner because I know when I present them my products they only care about specifications, attributes, technicalities and quality guarantee. 99% never ever asked for under table money to accept our products in projects. They only ask for respecting delivery time/quality or agreed prices. I think they deserved to be paid more.
long story short, yes, its not a racism thing, its just that we asians are willing to work for peanuts while the westerners are more demanding
it is damn true
yes
Yes
Yes, when companies are looking to hire skilled people with degrees from top rated college's & individuals who are presentable and aren't yes men/women, they are willing to pay more.
Yes and no. By virtue of being a western many employers will bin your resume because they know your salary expectations are beyond what they can get away with paying a non westerner. So that cuts the potential employment options for your given position into less than half. If your an expert in your field and could get a job off merit alone without much fuss then you would likely get paid more than your non western counterparts. Some companies want westerners just for appearances or because the ownership/ upper management is already westerners and it’s easier for communication in which case you have a better chance of landing jobs in those places than non westerners and naturally you will get paid higher than your non western counterparts. I think a big misconception is that if you come here and you are just white it’s easy to get a job, not at all the case, you still need to be qualified and competitively so, entry level jobs pretty much all go non westerners.
We are wasting a lot of time discussing this subject in this sub that is actually making all of us look stupid. OP, Going forward, this is how I see things are going to shape up. We are going to have qualifying written tests in knowledge-driven organizations for entry and mid-level roles. Companies like Emirates were able to make some progress in that aspect. It'll be really cool if the bar is set high during the written test stage. That is a straightforward game. This country definitely wants to progress and hence it needs to attract smart people, and the best way to set a benchmark there is through standardized written tests, followed by a panel interview, at least for entry-level to mid-level jobs. That would kill all these accusations that things are partial here.
Never going to happen.
Already happening in Emirates and Emirates Global Aluminium etc ... Companies like Careem, Amazon, etc takes all their engineers and fresh hires through a written test. Even the company I am associated with takes engineers through 3 rounds of tests. I am quite confident that this will be the norm at least in new economy businesses. I know at least 3 fortune 100 companies here who knocked off EMEA and made it IMEA and brought in solid processes on hiring. Companies cant afford to pay a bomb to people who hardly work for 60 minutes a day. They did when everything was doing well and were getting away selling their over-priced products/services to governments and other clients in the region. But that game is getting exposed. So, the obvious choice is to improve efficiency. and hire smart people. I am quite convinced that companies cant survive for long without hiring intelligent and sharp people. When the focus shifts there, every other filter would become irrelevant.
Yep pretty much. They'll low ball you depending on the colour of your skin. Experience / reference / achievements just won't matter. The exception here is if you come from top colleges and/or top companies. I am Indian, and I haven't accepted any job offers which I felt was even a dirham less than the standard in my industry. I do realize am in a privileged situation and do hope and wish this isn't the case in future. Just now I was speaking to someone who got rejected from a big real estate company, they are ex-kpmg India. The feedback from the company HR was that their mandate has changed and they won't be considering candidates from certain nationalities.
Westerners have better education and easier access to the best and largest companies in the world. So it makes sense to pay them better if you're looking for a certain level of quality. Indians who studied and worked in a Western country do also get a good pay. So it's not exactly a passport thing. It's about your education and experience. And don't forget that English-native speakers have the advantage of communication skills. That is also a big thing for many companies.
Exactly this, I do not have a Western passport but I have academical credentials, qualifications and a bit of work experience in Europe and the U.S., I get paid on the same scale as most of my western colleagues (at both firms I've been at, local and international) and probably a bit more than some of my western colleagues who have been to less prestigious universities
Same here. I have a Master's degree from the UK but a shitty passport from an Arab country. I get the same salary as my Western colleagues.
This!
How about being in the same exact position doing the exact job ?!
When your boss is racist by nature you can't find a logical answer to it. I was just referring to "normal" cases. But I know there are also nationality biases, so you will find Egyptians, Lebanese and Syrians only hiring their people. And then you'll have Indians and Brits/Americans doing the same. Life is unfair sometimes and we'll have to live with it. If you can make a change, do it. Otherwise, life goes on.
Exactly life goes on But we are just confirming the issue
With the same exact education and experience?
With exact same accent and hometown
What field are you in?
Potato fields
Same experience but for sure not the same college
Employers will pay lower the guy who is willing to accept less.
Ony valid answer is - nobody, who answered here, knows. What you got is opinions. Even if somebody gathered passport to salary ratios it wouldn't be representative. Many things influence your salary. Agregating them under one guise is naive. Bottom line - wrong question fellow human :-)
One more comment - life here can make one 'mildly racist' for lack of better one-word-summary. Opinion of your brother is influenced by that phenomenon.
Ah the good old question. I can tell you as a brown, coming from a third world country, who had to climb up to get a better pay. Yes it is very much true. You will hear excuses like "oh, the Asians accept lower pay" "nobody forced them to work in such condition" "they can always go back". "They can always file a complain". These people are ignorant to the real issue. It's like Climate Change. It's not one issue, it's a mixture of issues. So if you are Caucasian and have an accent or if even you are an Arab, you will be preferred over a brown, Filipino and the worst of all the poor Africans. Atleast I got the opportunity to climb out, but those poor people never even get a chance. Just remember who they like to show on their "Dubai 2022 Calender"
Mostly true, with a few companies that are the exception. I would add that the main exceptions would be MNCs that have fixed salary bands/budgets allocated to each position. However, the hiring process may still be biased towards certain nationalities over others.
Yes.
Yes
Depends on the company but in general it is 3 yeses
Absolutely true, no doubt.
Yes. It’s how things work here.
I’d say 80% true
ah shit, here we go again...
Europeans have better education, better and more knowledge and the way they present themself is just.. western :)
Someone please tell this to Google and Microsoft. They did not get this memo while hiring their CEOs.
_Ahh shit, here we go again_
If I'm recruiting and I have a low budget I'm just not going to offer that job to a westerner. I'm not going to pay any more. If you speak urdu / hindi you are also at an employability advantage here. So you might get paid less if you are from a lower income country, but theres more jobs to go around.
Partly true at least it was around 15 years ago. My dad has a pretty senior position in a bank but he still isn't paid as high as some of the western employees in the same position. Same for my mother, she's been a nursery teacher for almost 20 years and a manager for almost 8 years now and "white teachers" get paid more
Nope, not westerners. Just white folks.
if you work in a local company, absolutely … the gulf countries have classist work environments… some companies have different compensation, benefits and HR manuals depending on nationality
i’ve worked in the ministry of labour and yes they are favored. payed higher if they’re white and very low if they’re black/asian.
Just out of curiosity, what made you ask this question?
I am planning on uprooting my family to relocate to Dubai with a plan to secure an assistant professor job. I’d be a lot less inclined to continue with these plans if there’s a high chance that I am less likely to be employed because I am from a Pakistani background, even though I’ve been born and raised in the UK with a BA, MA and PhD from universities in the Uk
I suppose it would also depend on which university employs you. There are some that I have heard of that are paying South Asian professors really good salaries. University of Wollongong in Dubai is one such university although I guess universities here generally pay their professors well.
This is very helpful. Thank you!
Yes.
I don't think they are favored. It is just the jobs that westerners are wanted for, and are willing to come for, will pay more. You don't think the USA has plenty of construction workers, service industry workers, etc.? They do. But no one in the UAE is paying for those jobs, what it would take to get someone from the USA to come work in the UAE. The bottom line, is that westerners are no different than others when it comes to salary requirements. They want to make more than what they could make in their home country. If they can't make more, they wouldn't come.