Wipro hikes salary, good news for IT

BANGALORE: The smiles are back in Silicon Plateau. Wipro has just handed out salary increments to all its employees. With effect from February

1, employees will get a pay hike in the 8% to 12% range with some even getting a 15% increase.

Such a hike comes after a long dark tunnel — of 12 to 18 months — when employees went through a difficult period of layoffs, uncertainty, additional work loads, and salary freeze. A Wipro employee said she received the increment letter which indicated a 12% increase in salary. Several other employees also said they had received increment mails.

Wipro's head of HR Pratik Kumar, however, declined to talk about details. "Hikes are in the pipeline. We mentioned it during our third quarter financial results. We'll make a further announcement regarding the hike and percentage etc. only in February," he said.

A couple of mid-tier Wipro executives said the hike is a morale booster. "I was seriously exploring a job change. Now that I'm getting a hike close to 15%, I guess I should stay back," a senior project manager said.

Infosys had given a single-digit increment in October. It had announced an across-the-board raise and promotions with effect from October 1, 2009. Domestic salaries went up by 8% while onsite pay rose by 2%. "During the October-December quarter, our variable pay has been 100%, against 92% in the previous quarter. We'll be thinking of a further salary hike only in April 2010," said its HR head T V Mohandas Pai.