Resilient India Inc. bets on recovery, 87% to give salary hikes in 2021: Aon Survey

New Delhi: About 87 per cent of companies in India are planning to give salary hikes in 2021 compared to only 71 per cent in 2020, according to the latest Aon salary survey.

Among the organisations that are considering giving increments in 2021, 61 per cent of these plan to offer increases between 5 per cent and 10 per cent (projected) compared to only 45 per cent handing out hikes in 2020 in the same range.

Aon plc, a leading global professional services firm has released insights from its latest Salary Trends Survey in India where 1050 companies from more than 20 industries were covered.


“This is a special year—business leaders are putting investments in their employees and clients ahead of shareholder return,” said Nitin Sethi, a partner at Aon, and CEO of the firm’s Performance and Rewards Solutions practice in India.

“Business and HR leaders made hard decisions in Q2 and 3 of 2020 and are now betting on the green shoots of improving consumer demand,” he said.

Hi-Tech, IT, ITES, life sciences, e-commerce, chemicals and professionals services are the sectors that are considering handing out the highest salary increments.

Companies in the hospitality, retail and real estate/infrastructure industries, which had given very low increases in 2020 are projecting a higher increase for 2021. But still trail most other sectors.

“The impact of COVID-19 has been varied on different sectors and organisations. We see high differentials in salary increases –both intra and inter-industry,” said Navneet Rattan, Director at Aon in India’s Performance and Rewards Solutions practice.

The difference between industries with the highest increase to lowest increase hits 7.2 per cent points as compared to mere 2.4 per cent points in 2019.