14.5 per cent increase in salary for employees predicted

Bangalore, Mar 15 (UNI) A 14.5 per cent increase in the salary of employees in India has been predicted by a survey by Hewitt Associates, the world's foremost provider of human resources consulting and outsourcing services.

This would be the fourth consecutive year that salaries have demonstrated double-digit growth in India, according to a release by Hewitt and Information here today.

In 2006, the employees in India received an average salary increase between 11.9 per cent and 16 per cent on par with 2005's increase, according to the 11th annual Salary Increase Survey.

The Survey revealed that the Indian companies were awarding higher salary increases than multinational corporations. In 2006, an overall increase of 14.9 per cent in salary was made by Indian companies, while MNCs had made an overall increase of 14.3 per cent.

Thus, local organisations strengthen their reward management practices and focus on pay for performance to attract and retain talent and enhance overall productivity.

However, despite its popularity, India lagged behind its western counterparts in adequate leverage of equity linked incentive. Now with Fringe Benefit Tax on employees stock option plans or any equity-linked incentive, this would prove a dampener for the organisation just beginning to use them as a strategic rewards tool to manage compensation and drive retention, Mr Sandeep Chaudhary, business leader of Hewitt's Talent and Organisation Consulting Analytics Practice in India.

UNI