Salary hike stays warm against the cold economic slowdown: Hewitt survey

22 August 2008

New Delhi: A study by human resources firm Hewitt Associates that seeks to understand the impact of economic slowdown on compensation and salary trends in India has found that 63 per cent of the organisations surveyed say inflation and rising input costs have been discussed and considered in the context of their salary increase budgets for 2009. 

The study says that the year 2008 has still seen a strong average salary increase of 14.8 per cent. 

Hewitt surveyed 150 leading Indian companies foreign-owned, locally-owned, and joint-venture companies this year, analysing information across nine primary industries. 

The study measured actual and projected salary increases, and compensation practices for six specific job categories, namely top executive, senior management, middle management, junior manager/professional/ supervisor, general staff, and manual workforce.

The global economic slowdown, US sub-prime crisis and rising inflation have caused Indian companies to revisit budgets for 2009; and the average salary projections for the coming year are lower by a percentage point at 13.9 per cent.

Companies are looking to balance inflationary pressures and lower human resource (HR) budgets by increasing productivity (57 per cent) and through the redeployment of manpower (31 per cent).