New Delhi: First the good news: Employees in India are expected to get an average 11 per cent hike in their salaries in 2014 as companies deal with challenges such as attracting and retaining critical talent.
The bad news: Factor in inflation, and the rise is expected to be just 2 per cent.
According to a survey by Towers Watson, average salary across Asia Pacific is set to rise 7 per cent in 2014.
Taking inflation into account, China and Vietnam at 4.9 per cent lead the way while Japan at 0.5 per cent and India at 2 per cent are among countries offering the smallest raises.
Companies in Asia Pacific, including India, are finding it hard to both find and retain suitably skilled staff, the survey said.
Over 80 per cent of the companies surveyed in India say a larger portion of their salary budget allocation would go to high performers in 2014.
The retail industry in India particularly stands out with all respondents planning along these lines.
"Our research clearly indicates that both employers and employees in India rank base pay among the top two retention drivers," Towers Watson India Director, Talent and Rewards, Subeer Bakshi said.
Indian companies continue to offer double-digit salary hikes as they deal with the challenge of attracting and retaining critical talent, Bakshi said, adding high levels of inflation end up eroding much of the hike.
"Overall, the Asia Pacific data for 2013 and 2014 looks similar, so companies should be budgeting for salary increases much the same as last year," Sambhav Rakyan, Global Data Services practice leader, Asia Pacific at Towers Watson said.
Rakyan further added that "if the company is growing at a fast rate and revenue exceeds the cost by a huge margin, it is easier to be aggressive on salary budgets than low growth companies."
Also read:
13 Countries with Highest Tax Rates in the World
What If You Fail To File Tax Returns Within The Deadline?
Magazine : 
.jpg "PMP Institutes")