Dubai: Do you sometimes lose the drive to work because you think you’re not being paid fairly? How many times do you feel letdown because you know that someone in the same position is paid more than you?

Results of a new study indicate that there are probably many people who share your frustration.

The latest Compensation Best Practices Report (CBPR) by Payscale showed that only a small percentage (36 per cent) of employees from several countries including the UAE believe they get paid what they deserve. In contrast, however, the majority of employers (73 per cent) think worker salaries are fairly distributed.

Payscale’s report, which is based on the feedback from nearly 7,600 respondents from companies of every size across a wide section of industries, showed that there is still a huge gap between how employees and employers feel about staff compensation.

“While [the majority] of employers consider their employees are fairly paid, only 36 per cent of employees feel they are paid fairly,” the report, obtained by Gulf News said.

A spokesperson for the company told Gulf News that the majority of the respondents in the survey were from the United States, although responses were also gathered from the UAE, Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, South Africa and United Kingdom.

Payscale’s findings echoed a similar study conducted by a job portal among UAE professionals, which showed that 1 in 2 people in the country are unhappy with their income.

The survey, conducted by Bayt.com in 2015, showed that 50 per cent of UAE professionals are not content with their income, compared to just 4 per cent who are highly satisfied with what they earn.

Suhail Masri, the company’s vice president for employer solutions, said there is still a gap between the cost of living in the UAE and salary earnings. “This shows that employers must quickly address the widening disparity if they want to effectively tap into the local and regional talent pool,” Masri told Gulf News.

“Ultimately, it is about equipping professionals across the career and industry spectrums with the right tools needed to make their next career move – one that can better suit their lifestyle.”

While other human resources specialists would argue that money is not a key driver for employees to work harder or accept a job offer, Payscale’s own findings suggest otherwise.

According to Payscale's findings, money still plays an important role especially when hiring new talent. There have been instances where employers are unable to hire a suitable candidate for months largely because the salary offer is not competitive.

About a quarter (23 per cent) of all respondents believed that the inability to offer a competitive salary was the reason positions in their organisation remained unfilled for six months or more.

The perception, however, varies according to industries, with only 14 per cent of respondents from the science and engineering industry blaming competitive wages as the culprit, while 41 per cent of those in the education industry and 33 per cent of those in the non-profit industry cite lack of ability to offer competitive wages as their primary obstacle to recruiting top talent.