2009 pay hike highest in India

February 20, 2009
Categories: Your MoneyMUMBAI:

Global consultancy Hewitt Associates has projected that employees in India can look forward to an average salary hike of 8.2 per cent this year, the highest in the Asia-Pacific region. This places India ahead of China (eight per cent) and Thailand (six per cent), reported the Times of India.Other countries in the region are Australia, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan.Even so, the firm stated that the average salary hike projection for this year in India is much less than the 13.3 per cent hike last year and pointed out that the estimated pay increase is in “single digit” for the first time since 2002.These projections were part of the findings in the 13th annual Salary Increase Survey the firm conducted with 480 companies across the region, which also reported that around 16 per cent of companies in India have reported salary freezes this year.It also added there would be a decline in salary hikes across all levels of management this year but noted that more firms are anticipated to introduce performance-based incentive plans.Touching on the entertainment/ communications/publishing industry, the firm’s survey projected this industry is expected to witness a salary hike of 7.5 per cent this year, compared to an estimated increase of 14.7 per cent last year.The firm said that this industry which is directly “dependent upon other industries for advertising revenue are witnessing sharp reductions in salary increases”.Sandeep Chaudhary, leader of Hewitt’s Performance and Rewards Consulting practice in India, said: “The downturn has hit all economies across the globe, and those that had dependent economic ties with the US are the ones most affected. Expectedly, salary increase projections have dipped from previous years.“In spite of this, the Indian and Chinese economies are continuing to grow at greater than seven per cent and salary increases in these markets will be among the highest in the globe. In fact, with inflation well below 5.5 per cent, an average increase of 8.2 per cent can be considered significantly healthy.” — Agencies