10 years back when I shifted to Oman with hubby for his job, it was all with the intention of making some good money and saving up for retirement. In India we earn, but after all the expenses it is not very easy to save a good amount of money. While I had to quit my job back then, I did have some regrets, but we calculated the offer he was getting, which should cover up my loss of India pay also and the additional money we needed for extra savings. The offer was good, so we decided to take it up.
At that time 1 Omani Rial (OMR) was 160 INR, so all the calculations were based on that conversion rate. One thing about taking up a job offer in Middle East, one must understand that what you get at the time of joining is the best offer. After that there will not be much of salary hike. The big established companies will give standard 3% to expats, and the small companies do not even bother to give that, unless you are a valuable resource and you threaten to leave them. So whatever offer you get at the time of joining has to be well thought of for future as well.
Some people will wonder then why do people take up jobs if there is no growth. This is the catch, while your salary may not go up much, the value of the currency will go up and that will benefit you. Right now, the value of 1 OMR = 250 INR. 10 years back if I sent 100 OMR back home in India, it was 16000 INR, and today if I send 100 OMR it is equal to 25000 INR. Even with not much salary growth people benefit.
This is the excuse many small time companies make to their employees to avoid giving salary hike. That's not right but then there is no choice at times if you want the job. The difficulty is in the conversion we benefit, but there is inflation in the country on the day-to-day expenses, which the company does not factor, they only see the conversion rate for expats, as if they are going to send 100% money back home and not spend anything in day-to-day life. It's a catchy situation but somewhere people still find it beneficial so they continue. For lower pay jobs normally, the company provide accommodation and takes care of the utility bills. The labor class they are covered with almost everything, like transport, food, accommodation, utility bills, so whatever salary they are getting is almost like saving except for little that they keep on their leisure and some daily necessities, and hence it is an advantageous offer for them.
Me and hubby have decided that we will keep transferring our saved OMR to India on regular basis, because of the current global situation you never know what happens, and in the greed of getting more conversion and keeping money in OMR, you never know someday it can become an issue. If we go back in history of Kuwait, in 1990 there was a sudden invasion of Iraqi forces and lot of expats lost all their savings, they had to flee the country without any of their savings. Though in that time the internet banking was not there and now it's there, so one can operate from any part of the world. But in such circumstances if the banks decide to freeze accounts then what can one do.
Let's see how much OMR goes up more in the years to come, at least till the time I am living here.
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