Majority of senior Infosys executives still await hike

BENGALURU: Infosys had said in April that the top 15% of its executives, including middle and senior management staff, who had not been given salary increments effective April would be given the same with effect from July. But only about a quarter of these executives (those in job level, or JL, 7 and above — delivery managers and higher) have been given a compensation increase of 3-5%. The hikes for the rest have been deferred, sources said.

It’s not clear exactly how many employees are in the JL 7 and above categories, but one Infosys report said there are 30,092 employees across JL 6, 7 and 8 categories. There’s wariness among some of those who have not received increments, considering the Indian IT industry is witnessing layoffs and voluntary retirement programmes for senior management.

The increment deferral may be part of an effort to contain the margin drop. Infosys’s margins have been under pressure on account of efforts to hire locally in the US and higher subcontracting costs. It has hired some 9,000 people in the US in recent times, but deal volumes have to pick up substantially to offset the impact of these new hires who come with sizeable salaries. Infosys has forecast its operating margin to be in the 21-23% band for 2019-20, down from 23-25% that it was at not long ago. TCS had a near 26% operating margin in the last fiscal.


Sources told TOI that the company is taking a number of measures to contain costs. Among these are restrictions on travel. “Earlier, we just needed to inform the company about travel plans. Now, multiple approvals are required, and the broader message is to be very selective about travel,” a senior executive said.