Hyderabad: The buzz regarding salary hikes, which are an annual affair in software companies at this time of the year, is missing. A majority of IT firms are deferring this process, some beyond October while others are not committing themselves to any date to hike salaries.
For the last five years, the average salary hike at junior and middle level positions in most companies including IT majors like Infosys, TCS, Wipro, Tech Mahindra and Cognizant was in the range of 10 to 12 per cent of their salaries. It is unlikely that companies will be giving that much this year.
According to Mr V. Ghanshyam, senior software professional, a few IT companies are giving a nominal hike of about five per cent.
“IT firms take up salary appraisals in February and March. Increments are given in first quarter of the new financial year. Even if the decision is announced in July, the hike used to be effective from April 1 and arrears were given for previous months. This year the situation is very confusing and it is unlikely companies will give pay arrears even if they make any announcement on this after October," he said.
Mr S. Pulla Reddy, chairman and managing director of a software firm in the city, said the IT sector was facing a challenging situation with operating margins coming down and increasing shift towards automation that made companies to think on cost optimisation and lay offs. Hence, IT managements are not in a position to give considerable salary hikes as was the case for the last few years, he stressed.
