This wasn’t a good year for IT pay packets. But all told, it wasn’t a bad
year either. Increments–that big annual hoopla of the industry–lost some of
their sheen despite which IT jobs remain among the best paying in the country.
Consider some numbers–by and large, entry-level salaries for people with
less than two years’ experience range from Rs 2 to 3 lakh, with some
development centers of international product companies even offering Rs 5 lakh
per year. Nearly half the workforce with 2-5 years of experience gets between Rs
4 and Rs 6 lakh annually. In fact, if you ignore the fringe numbers, most IT
employees with 2-5 years’ experience fall in the Rs 2-6 lakh income bracket.
Between 5-10 years, the pay packet largely ranges from Rs 6 to Rs 9 lakh. After
that, salary figures stop making sense, varying all the way from Rs 10 to Rs 90
lakh per annum for those with over 10 years of experience.
The bad news? The increment chart is suddenly looking a lot flatter and is
likely to remain that way through this year. Salary hikes had already been
affected drastically during the DQ salary survey of April last year–when they
went down from an average of 40% or so to 15% in most companies. This year, that
fall got broadbased. Over 50% of IT employees got increments of 15% or less,
compared to 39% last year. This percentage is among those who even got
increments in the first place.
Male to Female Ratio Among IT Professionals |
|
Company | M/F Ratio |
Rolta | 24:1 |
Mascon Global |
19:1 |
HCL Infosystems |
12:1 |
Adobe | 11:1 |
Datacraft India |
8:1 |
Digital Globalsoft |
7:1 |
HCL Technologies |
6:1 |
Sun Microsystems |
6:1 |
HP | 5:1 |
Cadence Design Systems |
5:1 |
Infosys | 5:1 |
Kshema Technologies |
4:1 |
Wipro | 4:1 |
TCS | 4:1 |
SAP | 4:1 |
Hughes Software Systems |
4:1 |
iFlex | 4:1 |
Philips | 3:1 |
Cognizant Technology |
3:1 |
NIIT | 2:1 |
Source: IDC, 2002. Figures rounded off. |
|
On an average, there are seven male employees to every female employee in the IT industry, or roughly, about 12.5% of the industry is populated by women. This varies widely from company to company, with NIIT having the highest proportion of female employees (29%) and Rolta the lowest (4%). Other companies with a comparatively large proportion of female employees include Cognizant Technology Solutions, Philips and i-Flex. Other largely male-dominated companies are Mascon Global, HCL Infosystems, Adobe India and Datacraft. About 17% of Infosys Technolgies’ employees, 20% of TCS employees and 19% of Wipro employees are women. |
In fact, a lot of companies, ranging from relatively small software exporters
to large MNC vendors, actually cut salaries from anywhere between 10 and 20%
across the board. It wasn’t just the high-paying startups that first cut down
salaries and then staff strength. The pre-merger HP brought some of the US
flavor to India, offering its employees the option of either going on leave for
a while or taking a 10% salary cut–that was around August last year. The
exercise was voluntary and the company says over 90% employees volunteered to
take the cut. Others like Infosys linked part of the increment to overall
company performance for a while.
Employee Break-up by Salary and Experience |
|
Salary (Rs Lakh p.a.) | Employees % |
10 plus years experience level |
|
0.1 to 5.0 |
0 |
5.1 to 10.0 |
11.7 |
10.1 to 15.0 |
12.3 |
15.1 to 20.0 |
11.5 |
20.1 to 25.0 |
3.4 |
25.1 to 30.0 |
22.9 |
30.1 to 35.0 |
6.7 |
35.1 to 40.0 |
11.5 |
40.1 to 45.0 |
2.1 |
45.1 to 50.0 |
3.1 |
50.1 to 90 |
14.8 |
Frankly, these numbers are shaky. The 10 years-plus experience level includes the top management, and this skews the findings. Among the Top 5 software companies, for instance, top management salaries can range anywhere between Rs 2 crore and Rs 5 crore per annum for marketing heads working out of the US, drawing dollar salaries. So though the average here looks like Rs 32 lakh per annum (Rs 42 lakh for the Top 5), the real numbers for employees with more than 10 years of experience who don’t fall into the top 1-2 % of the top management category is likely to be lower. With that fiat, the numbers show that about 24% of IT professionals with more than 10 years in the business draw between Rs 10.1 to Rs 20 lakh per annum. Another large chunk of 26.3% draws between Rs 25.1 lakh and Rs 30 lakh per annum. |
Salary (Rs Lakh p.a.) |
Employees % |
Salary (Rs Lakh p.a.) |
Employees % |
Salary (Rs Lakh p.a.) |
Employees % |
5 to 10 yrs experience level |
2 to 5 yrs experience level |
Less than 2 years experience |
|||
0.1 to 3 | 3.4 | 0.1 to 2.0 | 2.6 | 0.1 to 1.0 | 0 |
3.1 to 6 | 16 | 2.1 to 4.0 | 31 | 1.1 to 2.0 | 13.8 |
6.1 to 9 | 39.4 | 4.1 to 6.0 | 48.4 | 2.1 to 3.0 | 66.8 |
9.1 to 12 | 37.5 | 6.1 to 8.0 | 17.8 | 3.1 to 4.0 | 4.2 |
12.1 to 15 | 3.2 | 8.1 to 10.0 | 0 | 4.1 to 5.0 | 9.6 |
15.1 and above |
0.6 | 10.1 & above |
0.3 | 5.1 & above |
5.5 |
About 40% of Indian IT professionals with 5-10 years of experience get between Rs 6 lakh and Rs 9 lakh gross salaries. Another chunk of about 37% gets Rs 9 to Rs 12 lakh. Put together, about 77% of IT professionals with 5-10 years of experience draw between Rs 6 lakh and Rs 12 lakh annually, or about Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh a month. |
A little less than half of all IT employees with 2-5 years of experience draw between Rs 4-6 lakh per year. The band is comparatively broader here, though–31% get between Rs 2-4 lakh and another 7.8% get Rs 6-8 lakh annually. Ignoring the fringe numbers, over 97% professionals in this experience grouping draw between Rs 2 and Rs 8 lakh. |
The salary numbers are more uniform here than anywhere else, with 67% of all employees getting between Rs 2.1 and Rs 3 lakh. The range across 33 companies, however, varied from a starting salary of Rs 1.1 lakh to a little over Rs 5 lakh. |
Average Salary Across Different Experience Groups |
|||||
10 plus Years |
5 to 10 Years |
2 to 5 Years |
less than 2 Years |
||
Industry Average |
32 | 9 | 5 | 3 | |
DQ Top 10 |
34 | 8 | 5 | 3 | |
DQ Top 5 |
42 | 9 | 5 | 3 | |
All figures in Rs lakh Industry average: 33 software companies from the HR survey DQ Top 10 or 5 are the ‘common’ companies that figure in both the DQ Top 20 and the HR survey |
It’s still a young industry–a good 30% of IT professionals in the country today are new entrants, with under 2 years of experience. However, about 37% have been around for a while, with about 2-5 years in the business and some of them will be on the threshold of moving up from the executive to manager level. Not surprisingly, it’s still not too heavy at the top, with only 10.6% of the industry consisting of professionals with over 10 years of experience. |
Which was just as well...Year 2001-2002 will be remembered for a long time in
the history of the Indian IT industry as the ‘Year of Layoffs’. And the year
we discovered numerous euphemisms for that word–right-sizing, smart-sizing,
reorganization… There’s no concrete data available on the number of people
actually laid off, but numerous companies pared their staff strength from
anywhere between 2% and 5%. At the very least, most put a stop to hiring.
|
Without exception, all companies focused on cost-cutting. This ranged all the
way from reduced travel and telephone expenses to a clampdown on office
stationary and, in one case, even tissues in the restrooms. Some perks,
specially those whose withdrawal could cause a fair among of angst–still
stayed untouched. About 62% of employees surveyed said they were still eligible
for lunch allowance, while 36% said they were still getting overtime benefits
(the last applying mostly to software professionals). Companies that could
afford benching put their employees on sundry training programs. So that was one
benefit–if one could call it that in the circumstances–that was not hit
quite as badly. Insurance and reimbursement of medical bills were suddenly perks
that were part of the salary package, so they remained untouched too. Not very
surprisingly, the smaller companies–Adobe, SAP and Cadence–did the best on
employee ratings on perks. Infosys did commendably at #4, considering its size.
i-Flex and Digital were the other two companies that didn’t rank too high
on the Best Employer rankings (see DQ Top 20, 2002 Volume 4), but did well on
perks.
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Despite this, and perhaps in a perverse way because of it–salary no longer
remained the chief motivator for IT employees. It remained important–it always
will–but job content, security and company image took on greater value. In the
long run, the industry may look back at this as a blessing. While chasing the
money was certainly a valid reason for jumping jobs, it wasn’t always the
wisest one. Last year, more than any, showed us that.
Methodology
The DQ-IDC HR and Salary Survey, 2002 was carried out in seven cities across
the country–Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Pune.
The first part of the survey, The Best Employers’ Rankings–were carried in
the August 31st issue. (DQ Top 20 Volume 4). The survey was conducted in two
phases–in the first phase, questionnaires were sent out to 198 companies, of
which 48 companies participated. From these, 23 companies were shortlisted on
the basis of various parameters for the second round–the employee survey. The
salary survey uses data from both phases. For the salary figures, data has been
used from 33 companies that cover the entire spectrum–from software to
hardware and services across the country. Data on perks and demographics was
taken from responses from 774 IT employees surveyed in Round II. Salary figures
are "Cost to Company" figures, as given by HR heads of these IT
companies.
Sarita Rani in Bangalore