Mumbai, July 19: Employees of India’s top three IT companies with only generic skills are seeing salary hikes fall to single-digit percentages of 5-9% in the financial year 2023-24 after a two-year period of double-digit growth, the Times of India reported, adding that this is due to clients of the companies reducing their spending due to economic challenges.
Infosys, which is known for having the highest annual increments among its peers saw its average increments drop to 9% compared to 9.9% in the previous year and 14.6% during the year before that, according to the report.
For TCS, the average hike was between 7-9% in 2023-24 compared to 10.5% in 2021-22. Wipro saw a 9.4% median hike compared to the previous year. Tech Mahindra and HCLTech had average hikes between 5-7%.
Salary hikes are falling as IT companies see falling profit margins and increasing business costs, along with the increasing availability of entry-level talent, Times of India quoted Pranshu Upadhyay, regional director and head of India technology practice at recruitment consultancy Michael Page, as saying.
However, this is for those with generic IT skills. Techies with niche skills have been getting higher hikes in the range of 12-15%, the report quoted Milind Shah, MD of Randstad Digital in India, as saying.
These areas of specialisation include AI, ML, cybersecurity, cloud computing, and data analytics, according to the report.
This is not just the case with IT companies. A Mint report citing data from consulting firm Aon showed that salary hikes are the lowest in three years across all sectors with companies offering a 9.3% in 2023-24 compared to 9.7% the previous year.