Single-digit pay hike in IT new reality

BENGALURU: Last week when Nasdaq-listed Cognizant rolled out an increment to employees after a four-month delay, it had to face criticism on social media as wage hike starting as low as 1%.

Soon, the company in a statement said the merit increases for this cycle are tied to both individual performance and macro industry dynamics. As per sources, employees with the highest rating received only a 4.5% salary hike. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) rolled out double-digit wage hikes for high performers and an average 4.5% to 7% wage hike for the rest of the employees, with effect from April 1.

Infosys’ last wage hike was in November 2023. Its CFO Jayesh Sanghrajka said during the Q1 earnings conference that they take multiple factors into account (inflation, peer practice) in case of a wage hike.

“At this point we are evaluating all of that..we have improved our variable pay this year versus the last quarter and last year,” he said.