Why a pay raise won’t stop your best staff from leaving

SINGAPORE’S finance professionals are among the best compensated in Asia.

Yet, according to research by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), less than half of Singapore professionals here are satisfied with their pay.

This figure has remained stubbornly high, with cost of living topping the ACCA’s Global Talent Trends Workplace Fears Index for four consecutive years.

If pay is good, why is satisfaction so middling?

The response, for employers who can afford it, is straightforward: pay more. But they may be drawing the wrong conclusion and only delaying an exit.

What’s really behind the ask?

The salary request is rarely about the money alone. When employees feel overworked, undervalued or uncertain about their trajectory, they do not always resign.

In a hierarchical workplace culture, a junior staff member struggling with an unsustainable workload may not feel safe declaring: “My mental health is suffering.”

A mid-career woman juggling professional ambition with caregiving responsibilities may not want to admit: “I feel my contributions are invisible.”

A Gen Z professional watching artificial intelligence automate the entry-level tasks that built their parents’ careers does not confidently announce: “I fear I have no future here.”

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These are vulnerable admissions and they require trust and a manager who actively listens.

In comparison, asking for more money is more transactional. Not that throwing money at a problem necessarily fixes it, but it is the most straightforward expression of “something is wrong”. The request feels objective and safe.

Salary negotiation may have thus become a poor proxy for a much more important conversation about whether the employment bargain still feels fair. The request is a signal. Employers need to read it correctly.

A more acute problem in the age of AI

For generations, the professional career arc was predictable and reliable. Build expertise. Gain experience. Take on greater responsibility. Become more valuable. Progress.

AI is disrupting that career arc in ways that are not universally understood and are often being poorly managed.

A finance professional may reasonably ask: If this technology makes me more productive, does that make me more valuable, or will I merely be expected to produce more?

If traditional entry-level tasks disappear, how will young workers acquire the foundational experience that once launched their predecessors’ careers?

These are valid questions about identity, purpose and sustainability to which leaders should offer answers.

Beyond the pay cheque

None of this means pay is unimportant or that employers should read it as a licence to freeze compensation. Pay matters and it should keep pace with cost pressures.

The point is, when an employee asks for more money, the first response should be to ask what they are really saying.

Is the employee underpaid? Pay them fairly. Is their workload unsustainable? Fix the workload. Do they feel their contribution is invisible? Make it visible.

Are they uncertain about their career in an AI-enabled organisation? Give them a credible, concrete map of how their role will evolve over the next two to three years, not a vague promise about “upskilling”.

This matters more in Singapore than any other market, and not just because it is small and competitive.

The accounting and finance profession is short on skilled talent locally. Fewer young people are entering the field; a wave of experienced professionals are approaching retirement; and the demand for talent to fill existing or new roles keeps climbing.

Replacing someone is not just a hiring cost; weeks are spent recruiting, onboarding and training. There is also the loss of productivity and institutional knowledge.

Retention, in other words, is usually the cheaper and more effective option.

The organisations that navigate this well understand that retention is not merely a compensation exercise.

People stay when they believe their contribution matters, their future is being invested in, and the organisation is moving somewhere they actually want to go.

The writer is regional lead, policy and insights, Asia-Pacific, at the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants