India Inc may offer 7.3% average hike this year

New Delhi: Corporate companies in India are expected to dole out an average increment of 7.3 per cent to employees this year amid faster-than-expected economic recovery and revival in business and consumer confidence, according to a survey.

The first phase of the 2021 Workforce and Increment Trends Survey by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India LLP (DTTILLP) also said the average increment this year will be higher than 4.4 per cent seen in 2020 but lower than 8.6 per cent given by companies in 2019. As many as 92 per cent companies that participated in the survey plan to give an increment in 2021 compared to only 60 per cent last year.

The survey, launched in December 2020 as a B2B India-specific survey, covered around 400 organisations spread across seven sectors and 25 sub-sectors. "Average increment for companies in India is expected to go up to 7.3 per cent from 4.4 per cent in 2020.

This 7.3 per cent projected increment is lower than the 8.6 per cent average increment in 2019. "The increase in increment budgets is in line with the faster-than-expected economic recovery, revival in business and consumer confidence, and early signs of improving corporate profitability," it said.

As per the findings, 20 per cent companies plan to give a double-digit increment this year compared to only 12 per cent in 2020. Out of the 60 per cent companies that gave an increment in 2020, a third of them did that through off-cycle increments.