EY released its Future of Pay 2023 report highlighting talent, attrition, and compensation trends across sectors in India Inc. According to the report, sectors that were severely impacted by the pandemic are experiencing a resurgence.
The report estimates average salaries in India to increase by 10.2 per cent in 2023, lower in comparison to 10.4% (Actuals) in FYâ22, but still in double digits.
Projected salary increases for 2023 are slightly lower than the actual increases for 2022 across all job levels, except for blue-collar workers who are projected to have a slightly larger decrease in compensation in 2023.
The top three sectors with the biggest forecasted salary increases are tied to technology. E-commerce has the highest projected salary growth at 12.5%, followed by professional services at 11.9%, and information technology at 10.8%.
Further, key skills and roles continue to be in demand across sectors and command premium in the market.
Below is the list of a few companies that have announced salary increases:
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has announced a salary hike for its employees, despite the 200-bps impact on the company’s operating margin.
TCS CFO Samir Seksaria said, “The annual pay hikes effective from April 1, would result in a 200-basis-point hit on the operating margin, which currently stands at 23.2%.” The company has given a 12-15% raise for exceptional performers in the latest annual compensation review, he added.
Wipro
Wipro has also announced a delay in its wage hike cycle for the fiscal year. The company has announced that it has postponed the salary hike of its employees to the 3rd quarter, the salary hike given in September last year will be postponed to the October-December quarter this year. The company plans to carry out the pay raise in the third quarter of the year instead of Q2.
Chief Financial Officer Jatin Dalal said, âWe did our last salary increase in September of last year, and we plan to do that for this year sometime in quarter three.â
HCLTech
The technology company HCLTech has deferred salary hikes for their employees by one quarter.
According to the reports, Chief People Officer Ramachandran Sundararajan said, âTypically, this time of the year, we make our announcements on pay reviews.”
“Last couple of years the hiring that we have done and the compensation reviews that we have done, we have taken that into consideration and have taken a decision to defer our annual reviews by a quarter,â Ramachandran Sundararajan added.
Infosys
Infosys has deferred the salary hikes of its employees which it usually rolls out from April for its employees below the senior management level.
Usually, Infosys rolls out pay hikes for employees below the senior management level in the month of June quarter, but employees yet have not received any communication from the company.
Airtel and VI rewarded 7-8% salary hikes; bonuses up to 110%
Telecom companies Airtel and Vodafone Idea have rewarded their employees with 7-8 per cent pay increments for the financial year 2023 (FY23).
Airtel has given top talent a 110 percent bonus, and Vodafone Idea followed with a 100 percent bonus. However, Reliance Jio has not announced the increments till now.
Air India revises job contracts for non-flying staff
The Tata Group-run Air India has revised compensation for non-flying employees with a retrospective effect from 1 April.
The airline will also provide annual increments for employees who joined post-privatization on or before 31 December.
For the employees who joined before privatization, the airline has introduced a cost-to-company compensation structure with fixed pay and performance-linked bonus.
Additionally, for the employees who joined between January and March this year, performance bonuses will be pro-rated with effect from the joining date.
Tata Group awards huge salary hikes of 16-60% to its top officials
Top executives at the âı22-lakh-crore Tata Group received pay increases ranging from 16% to 60%, with high-growth businesses such as Indian Hotels (IHCL), Tata Power, Trent and Tata Consumer leading the list of generous paymasters this year at the country’s most-valued and diversified conglomerate.