FILIPINO workers may view their pay as fair, but many remain dissatisfied with their salaries, underscoring the need for employers to look beyond compensation benchmarks to retain and motivate talent, a new report from Jobstreet by Seek showed.
The Philippines ranked second in the Asia-Pacific region for pay satisfaction, with 80 percent of workers saying they were fairly or well paid, just behind Indonesia’s 81 percent, according to the 2026 Salary Pulse Report. The survey covered more than 1,000 employed Filipinos in February.
Despite this relatively positive assessment, only 59 percent said they were happy with their salaries, while 45 percent said their earnings remained below what they needed to cover their cost of living.
The gap is particularly evident among workers who consider their pay “fair.” Only 44 percent of this group said they were satisfied with their compensation, suggesting that employees weigh salaries against their workload, recognition and ability to sustain their lifestyle, the report said.
Salary satisfaction also has implications for employee retention and productivity. Workers who are happy with their pay are more than 2.2 times as likely to feel motivated and willing to put in extra effort, while unhappy employees are 2.9 times more likely to actively seek another job.
“Compensation is only one part of the employee experience,” Dannah Majarocon, managing director of Jobstreet by Seek Philippines, said, urging employers to combine competitive pay with recognition, career pathways and open discussions on growth.
The report also found differences across generations and industries.
Millennials reported the lowest salary happiness score at 54 percent, compared with 61 percent for Gen Z and 60 percent for Gen X. Technology and construction workers posted the highest salary happiness, at 54 percent and 50 percent, respectively, while 58 percent of industrial workers said their earnings fell below their cost-of-living needs. / KOC