HCLTech, India’s third-largest IT services company, has partially began implementing salary hikes for junior employees within the October-December quarter, Moneycontrol reported on Tuesday. The announcement comes a day after the country’s second-largest IT services company, Infosys, was reported to have deferred its annual hikes to the fourth quarter of the present financial 12 months (Q4 2025).
According to the report, most HCLTech employees received a raise of 1-2 percent, with top performers receiving a raise of 3-4 percent.
IT corporations delay salary increases
It could also be noted that the newest report contradicts the HCLTech management’s comment that the corporate offered a median annual raise of seven percent and a 12-15 percent raise for top employees.
Apart from Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), most of India’s top IT corporations have delayed their pay hike cycles in FY25, which normally happens earlier within the fiscal 12 months.
By adopting this practice, IT corporations are reportedly attempting to defend margins amid uncertainty over discretionary spending and a difficult demand environment.
Quoting sources, Moneycontrol reported that HCLTech has began implementing increment for employees at E0, E1 and E2 levels, who’re mainly junior employees with around 10 years of experience.
However, staff within the E3 bracket and above – at mid-level and above – haven’t yet received pay rises. In response to this claim, HCLTech management said it had omitted compensation reviews for senior staff and executives for fiscal 12 months 2024.
“E0-E2 received the letters last December. They only received about 1-2 percent raises, and even the best players received a maximum of 3-4 percent raises. Employees at E3 and above are still waiting for evaluations, many of them have not received a raise for at least two years, and in the case of E4 levels even for three years,” the news portal quotes one of the employees as saying.
HCLTech reaction
In response to Moneycontrol’s queries, HCLTech reiterated its comment from the Q2 earnings conference call. It stated, as quoted on the business website: “Typically every year, if you look at the review cycle, given the fact that we have a larger percentage of people who join our system laterally who will be eligible for raises as they turn one year old, the number people entitled to pay increases in a given cycle. It’s a function of that and performance (sic).”
“If I take a look at the common for all our colleagues in India, it’s going to be around 7 percent. However, as is all the time the case, increases are linked to performance, and top performers will proceed to see double-digit increases within the 12-15 percent range. So we planned our raises. Everything will come into force from this month. We have our own benchmarking review cycles that we follow yearly,” the news portal quoted Ramachandran Sundararajan, HCLTech’s chief human resources officer, as saying.
Infosys postpones salary hike
On Monday, a business website reported that Infosys has deferred hikes to the fourth quarter of the current financial year.
Delays in wage increases highlight the prevailing uncertainty around global demand, particularly for IT services. Many IT companies face challenges such as low discretionary spending, lagging customer budgets and macroeconomic volatility.
Apart from Infosys, its competitors corresponding to LTIMindtree and L&T Tech Services have delayed salary hikes within the second quarter to take care of profitability.
