India to Lead Asia’s Salary Increase

A recent survey by global human resource consulting and outsourcing company Aon Hewitt shows that India’s 11.7 percent salary rise in 2010 has outpaced all the other Asia Pacific countries and this high increase rate is going to continue over the next few years.

The survey, which included 531 organizations from 18 primary and 30 secondary industrial sectors, forecasts that India will see its salary growth accelerate to a rate of 12.9 percent in 2011, not only because of the optimistic estimation of an above-9 percent GDP growth this year, but also the surging inflation that impacts businesses’ salary budgets.

Cost effective industries that mostly rely on domestic investment as well as consumption and have the capability to deliver high value complex services are going see the most salary increase in 2011. The engineering services sector tops the salary increase chart with a growth rate of 14.4 percent, thanks to a robust-looking long-term growth. The country’s automotive sector is ranked second, seeing an ever-increasing demand, while the energy and infrastructure industries are also predicted to see prominent salary increase.

In an economy that increasingly values true performance, the overall pay philosophy is seeing a shift, with the variable payment witnessing a more rapid growth as part of total compensation over the past 10 years. Senior management obtains 22 percent of variable payment of their total compensation, 6 percent up from the figure in 2001; even staff at the entry-level now sees 11 percent of their total payment variable compared to the 7 percent figure in 2001.