6 Out of 10 Luxembourg Employees Dissatisfied with Salary

According to a survey conducted by jobs.lu, over 60% of employees in Luxembourg are dissatisfied with their salary.

In February 2022, jobs.lu conducted a survey among a panel of Luxembourg employees to assess their level of satisfaction with their pay and to explore how they feel about pay-related issues. The first results of this study, in which 1,241 people partitipated, have revealed a high level of dissatisfaction among employees about their salary.

Over 60% of the employees surveyed said they were not satisfied with their current salary. Almost one in five (19.74%) said they were "very dissatisfied", while 41.74% said they were "somewhat dissatisfied". Among the employees who were satisfied with their pay, 32.96% said they were "fairly satisfied" and only 5.56% were "very satisfied".

In order to further explore the sense of dissatisfaction which was revealed in the results, the survey asked employees whether they thought their pay level was in line with the market average. In response, over one in two employees (51.25%) thought they were paid less than others in the market. Only 17.16% of workers thought they were paid above average. 

60% of those who felt they were paid less than average said that their company did not have a real pay policy. 28% said that they negotiated their salary poorly. 18% did not dare to talk to their manager about their salary or ask for a raise. 

"Pay-related issues are always sensitive, often giving rise to concern and even frustration", explained Arthur Meulman, CEO of jobs.lu. "The results of this study reveal that, beyond the obvious dissatisfaction, many companies do not have a clear and coherent pay policy, and that good communication about salary issues remains a problem area. In a tight labour market, ensuring team satisfaction is essential: this includes fair pay. Therefore, managers must be able to apply a pay policy that takes account of the market reality, so that pay-related issues can be discussed more openly with each member of their team".

The study revealed that, among those who considered themselves to be better paid than the market average, the difference was due to experience (for 40% of respondents), additional skills (35%), additional responsibilities (21%) and loyalty to the company (15%).