PTI

New Delhi, Apr 7: India is likely to witness a moderate salary increase of 7.3% this year after registering years of double-digit growth as recession is affecting the pay, benefit and job prospects for employees, global human resource consultancy firm Hay Group has said.

"Overall, the picture for India has deteriorated...Now, with large numbers of organizations freezing pay, and predictions overall of median pay inflation of around 7.3% after years of double-digit growth, there is evidence that organizations are having to tighten their belts," Hay Group said in a report.

The report further said "the biggest concern for Indian companies is still the attraction and retention of talent as opposed to managing downsizing."

This means that Indian organizations would continue to invest in competitive salaries for high performing and high potential employees, but will also need to get more creative in developing a work culture and leadership style that enables them to become employers of choice without having to resort to the check-book, Hay Group said.

Fast-growth economies with high wage inflation such as India and China, which have seen double-digit wage growth for some years are now predicting salary increases of less than half of 2007 levels.

In India and China, the firms that are freezing pay are more likely to be local operations of multinational companies. However, if the freeze continues for another year, then companies owned by foreign firms in India and China will see a significant weakening of their market positioning compared with state-owned enterprises and indigenous companies.

Regarding the public sector companies in India, Hay Group said "pay in the public sector remains relatively modest, even after these changes (even after implementing pay reviews), but increases of this magnitude will clearly skew Indian pay market data for some time to come."

Across the globe, salary freezes have become very common with employees in 36% of companies facing salary freezes and 27% of organisations are decreasing their staffing levels, the survey said adding that "many organisations which a year ago were having trouble filling vacancies are now having to resort to job cuts."

The survey, which covered 2,000 organizations from 88 countries across six continents, said "executive pay is likely to rise even less than that of their employees and in practice many executives will receive significantly less than in previous years, as bonus pay-outs drop and the value of share-based payments is hit by stock market falls."