After two-year lull, top Indian IT firms plan 8-12% salary increases

IT employees will have something to cheer about after a two-year lull, with top Indian information technology (IT) firms, including Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys Technologies and HCL Technologies, said to be offering increments for financial year 2010-11.

The increases are expected to be in the 8 to 12 per cent range, which do not compare too badly with the 13 to 15 per cent increments of pre-slowdown years such as 2007-08.

In 2008-09, IT firms gave salary increases selectively, since the global slowdown affected IT firms much before other sectors.

In 2009-10, when the global slowdown scorched the US — their primary exports market — Infosys and HCL Technologies were the only firms to offer selective and token raises. TCS, on its part, only increased the variable component of the salary.

Now, TCS, India's largest IT services firm, is planning to raise wages between 8 and 15 per cent, according to HR sources. The company has not yet announced the increments and, asked about the policy, a company spokesman declined to comment.

“TCS has also increased its MBA campus-level salaries by 10 per cent,” said an HR consultant, on condition of anonymity. Infosys, India's second largest IT services company, is planning an 8 to 12 per cent salary increase from April 1 for both offshore and onshore employees.

T V Mohandas Pai, head of HR and administration, and member of Infosys’ board, said the company decided to pay increments because it expects 2010-11 to be a normal year and “things are looking up”.

The company, however, said it was yet to take a decision on the level of increase.

Infosys, which had initially decided to defer increments in fiscal 2009-10, later revisited its decision and gave offshore employees an 8 per cent increase and onsite employees 2 per cent with effect from October 2009.

The company also said around 23,000 employees who were promoted last year were given an average salary increase of 12.5 per cent.

Bangalore-based IT services firm, Wipro gave both its onsite and offshore employees in February 8 to 9 per cent increments this year. The company, however, had not given any pay rise in 2009. Even Mahindra Satyam and HCL Technologies, according to HR sources, are planning salary increases. “Mahindra Satyam is expected to give the hikes in phases, beginning April 2010,” said an HR source. A company spokesperson declined to comment. “The current salary increases would be higher for employees who are associated with business units that have been doing well. Some of the companies are also looking at terminating non-performers,” said a source from the recruitment industry.