New Delhi, Nov 12: At a time when employers in Asia-Pacific region are strictly controlling their pockets, Indians on an average have received the highest pay hike in 2003.
According to global HR consultancy firm Hewitt Associates, employers in India have proved to be more generous than their counterparts in Japan, Australia, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea, Taiwan, Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand. ‘‘All the markets showed an average overall salary increase for 2003, with the highest being awarded in India followed by Philippines, China and Korea,’’ Hewitt said.
As in the previous year, Hewitt said, ‘‘Employees in the Indian IT-enabled industry were awarded the highest average salary increases—at 14 per cent.’’ Hewitt said software development industry reported the highest average projected salary hike of 14.2 per cent in the next year.
Pay freezes were reported in 4.0 per cent of the 92 companies surveyed in 2003, but none of these companies are expected to impose pay-freeze in 2004. ‘‘In 2003, variable pay as a percentage of total compensation was highest at 18.8 per cent among senior and top management. The projected figure for 2004 for the same category is 21.2 per cent,’’ Hewitt said.
Apart from India, Philippines recorded the highest average salary hike of 7.1-8.6 per cent, followed by Korea (7-7.3 per cent) and China (6.7-7.3 per cent). In Australia, Malaysia, Thailand and Taiwan, the hike in salary was 3-5 per cent only. The average pay hike in Singapore was in the range of 2.1-2.4 per cent, while it was 1.3-1.5 per cent in Hong Kong and 1.6-2.1 per cent in Japan, Hewitt said.
In 2004, Hewitt expects salaries to go up by only 1.0 per cent. There is unlikely to be any pay freezes in the companies surveyed in India, Malaysia and Philippines.