Salaries in India projected to rise by 10% this year — but there’s a catch

• Employees in India should see 10% hike in salaries in 2019, the highest in Asia, predicts the Korn Ferry 2019 Global Salary Forecast.
  
• However, when adjusted for inflation, real wage growth for India will be only 5%.
  
• Overall, Asia will witness the best salary growth after taking inflation into account.

Salaries in India are projected to increase by 10% in 2019, the highest in Asia, according to latest the Korn Ferry 2019 Global Salary Forecast.However, when adjusted for inflation, the rise in real wages will only be 5%.

India is widely expected to be Asia’s fastest-growing economy this year, with Asia expected to lead the world in real wage growth.

When adjusted for inflation, Asian employees can expect their l salaries to grow by 2.6% in 2019 according to the forecast. The real wage growth in Asia’s largest economy, China, is forecasted at 3.2%. For the other Asian economies the report forecasts growth at: Vietnam (4.8%); Thailand (3.9%); Indonesia( 3.7%); Malaysia (3.6%); and the Philippines(1.7%).

Globally, the salaries are expected to grow at a paltry 1% on average while the gross wage increase is forecast at 5.1%. That is a sign that reflects higher global inflation on average.

“The percentage of salary increase or decrease will vary by role, industry, country and region, but one thing is clear, on average, employees are not seeing the same real pay growth they did even one year ago,” said Bob Wesselkamper, Korn Ferry’s global head of rewards and benefits solutions

This forecast uses data drawn from Korn Ferry’s pay database which contains data for more than 20 million job holders in 25,000 organizations across more than 110 countries and the uses inflation forecasts from the Economist Intelligence Unit.

Another report has predicted positive momentum in India’s salary growth. According to the latest Q3 2018 Salary Budget Planning Report by Willis Towers Watson, India will show high salary increments by 10% mainly because of progressive reforms, constant economic growth and cautious approach of different sectors. That report further projected that the pharmaceutical sector will witness the highest salary increase in 2019 at 10.3% whereas the salaries for consumer and retail sector will remain at 10%. The financial services sector, meanwhile, will witness growth to 9.6% in 2019, up from 9.1% in the previous year.

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