According to an online poll, 56% of the respondents in Qatar have faced pay cuts in the last few months since the coronavirus (COVID-19) came to Qatar at the end of February 2020.

The survey comes in the wake of an article published in Bloomberg, and then Al Jazeera, which stated that a decline in energy prices worldwide has affected Qatar as well, and businesses are struggling under the COVID-19 driven lockdown. Businesses have either had to completely shut down, lay off their staff, or cut salaries to ensure the business can survive at this crucial time.

Around 10,000 people responded to the survey, conducted online by Khalifa Saleh Al Haroon - Mr. Q, CEO of IloveQatar.net, Store974 and well-known Qatari influencer, on how the coronavirus has affected people and their work. The purpose was to assess how employees feel about the impact of the economic crisis due to coronavirus (COVID-19) on their lives — in terms of layoffs and salaries — and find out their opinions with respect to the ongoing crisis in their country of residence.

Please note: Before you read ahead, it’s important to keep in mind here that this is just a sample survey and does not reflect the opinions of the entire population of Qatar, just the approximately 10,000 people who responded to the online survey. Due to the nature of the social surveys it is possible for people to answer outside of Qatar although it was made clear people should respond only if in the country and affected.

More than ½ of the respondents have had their pays cut

Where 56% of the respondents admitted they had received pay cuts, 44% said their salaries had not changed.

Of the 56% who had received pay cuts, approximately 2/3rd (68%) had their overall salary reduced, while 1/3^rd (32%) responded that only their allowances had been cut.

Just over 1/4^th of the respondents have been laid off from their jobs

Of the 10,000 respondents, 26% had been laid off from their jobs, while 74% said they still had their jobs. This indicates that the ratio of keeping people on their jobs is almost three times the ratio of those that have been laid off.

Over 3/4^th of the respondents would not want to see colleagues fired and would prefer a pay cut instead

But, the best news is that 86% of the people in the survey were more than willing to accept a pay cut, and would not want someone else to get fired just so they can keep their full salary. A lovely show of camaraderie in our community! Just 14% of the respondents were more concerned about their own personal gain.

Over 1/2 of the respondents want to stay in Qatar, even though the situation may not change much in the next three months

A chunk of the respondents that makes up about 64% sees no reason to leave Qatar if they lose their jobs, and would prefer to stay in Qatar to look for another job, even though 56% of respondents believed the situation in Qatar would not get much better in Qatar in the next three months.

The Qatari government is trying to curb the financial effects of the coronavirus (COVID-19)

His Highness (H.H.) the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, chaired a meeting of the Supreme Committee for Crisis Management on 15 March 2020 to follow up on all developments and precautionary measures to combat the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19). During the meeting, H.H. The Amir His Highness directed the initiation of the following financial and economic packages to support businesses in Qatar during the lockdown and, subsequent, financial crisis:

• to support and provide financial and economic incentives amounting to QR 75 billion to the private sector.
• the Central Bank to put in place the appropriate mechanism to encourage banks to postpone loan installments and obligations of the private sector with a grace period of six months.
• directing the Qatar Development Bank to postpone the installments of all borrowers for a period of six months.
• Directing government funds to increase their investments in the stock exchange by QR 10 billion
• The Central Bank to provide additional liquidity to banks operating in the country.
• Exempting food and medical goods from customs duties for a period of six months, provided that this is reflected in the selling price to the consumer.
• 6-month of rent relief for industrial facilities.
• Exempting the following sectors from electricity and water fees for a period of six months: hospitality and tourism sector, retail sector, small and medium industries sector, commercial complexes in exchange for providing services and exemptions to tenants, and logistics areas.

The future

Though some have lost their jobs and others are having to work with overall salary cuts or allowance cuts, the important thing is that we are safe and we will get through this. For those, who have time to look for new jobs here, and for those who have to leave, we will wish them luck. Every cloud has a silver lining, and there is light at the end of every tunnel. This difficult time, too shall pass, and things will get back to normal. Let's all be safe, and be positive!

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Nabeela

Content Writer

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