New Delhi, Oct 5 (IANS): Salaries in India are projected to rise the highest in the Asia Pacific region at 10 per cent in 2019, same as it did in the last four years, advisory and broking firm Willis Towers Watson said in a report on Thursday.

"While salary increases in India are stabilising around the 10 per cent mark, they remain the highest in the Asia Pacific region. Indonesia is projected at 8.3 per cent, China at 6.9 per cent, the Philippines at 6 per cent, and Hong Kong and Singapore both at 4 per cent," the firm said in its Q3 2018 Salary Budget Planning Report.

The median salary increase for 2019 at executive level is projected at 9.8 per cent, a marginal increase from 9.7 per cent in the previous year, and at 10 per cent for mid management and production or manual labour, a drop from 10.1 per cent.

About 42.6 per cent of the total salary increment budget is being allocated to top or above average performers, the report said.

"India continues to show high salary increments compared to other countries in the region and this can be attributed to the steady economic growth, progressive reforms and cautious optimism across sectors," Willis Towers Watson Data Services Practice Leader (Asia Pacific) Sambhav Rakyan said.

However, Rakyan said that workplace automation, artificial intelligence and robotics are expected to reshape a new combination of work, talent, skills requirements and work relationships.

"Organisations, therefore, should re-examine not just their talent strategies but also how they will remunerate and reward the workforce of the future," he added.

Willis Towers Watson India Director (Rewards) Arvind Usretay said the future of work is rapidly creating demand for niche and specialised skills, pushing companies to revaluate their total rewards programmes.

Usretay said as the auto industry gears up to the government push for electronic (green) vehicles, the demand for Li-Ion battery engineers will continue to rise.

"Similarly, in the high-tech industry, demand for specific IT skills such as machine learning and blockchain is expected to grow at the cost of generic skills," he added.

The report said that MNCs having operations in India will likely see average salary increases around the 10 per cent mark, while Indian companies will likely see a lower salary increase which is more directly linked to their financial performance.

On sector trends, the report said pharmaceuticals sector has the highest projected salary increase for 2019 at 10.3 per cent, consumer goods and retail sector will see 10 per cent increase and financial services sector will see 9.6 per cent rise in salaries.