MANILA, Philippines — Employees in the Philippine e-commerce industry are the second most satisfied in Southeast Asia despite having one of the lowest salaries, according to a study by price aggregator iPrice Group.
In its study which looked at whether e-commerce provides job satisfaction and gender diversity in Southeast Asia plus Hong Kong, iPrice found that employees from the Philippines are the second most satisfied as they gave the top three e-commerce companies a 3.9 star rating out of five.
The study showed 76 percent of Filipino employees would recommend the e-commerce firms to friends, and 87 percent approve of their chief executive officers (CEOs).
“It’s quite interesting since the Philippines has one of the lowest recorded salaries ($588 per month) among the seven countries, right after Vietnam ($394 per month),” iPrice said.
Indonesia topped the list of the most satisfied employees as its e-commerce workers gave a 4.3 star rating.
Employees from both Hong Kong and Vietnam gave a 3.6 star rating to the top three e-commerce players, while Malaysia and Thailand’s e-commerce workers provided a 3.4 star rating.
While Singaporeans have the highest salary among the seven markets covered at $3,116 per month, they were the most unsatisfied with working for the top three e-commerce firms as they gave a three-star rating.
In terms of having women in top level positions in e-commerce firms, the iPrice study showed the Philippines ranked fourth out of the seven markets, as opposed to taking the number one spot in 2018.
The study showed 39 percent of the top posts in e-commerce firms in the Philippines were held by women.
Hong Kong has the highest percentage of women in power at 55 percent, followed by Vietnam (46 percent) on second place and Thailand (44 percent) on the third spot.
Malaysia had 37 percent of women in top level positions, while Indonesia and Singapore had 36 percent and 35 percent, respectively.
Given the results of the study which shows average satisfaction rate of employees, and the small gender disparity in top level roles (60-40), iPrice said Southeast Asia is not a bad place for e-commerce.
“The future seems to be bright in a new industry like e-commerce, where there are more empathy and less discrimination to its employees,” iPrice said.
Operating in the seven markets, iPrice has three business lines: price comparison for electronics and health and beauty; product discovery for fashion and home and living; and coupons across all verticals.