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Salary Hikes In India In 2020 Likely To Be The Best In Asia, Korn Ferry Report Says

Only Indonesia is expected to come close to India with an average 8.1 percent salary hike in 2020, the Korn Ferry report says.

Employees work at a call centre. (Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg)
Employees work at a call centre. (Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg)

Employees in India can expect an average 9.2 percent salary hike in 2020, the highest in Asia, but inflation may play spoilsport, a report released Monday showed.

According to Korn Ferry Global Salary Forecast, India's salary growth for 2020 is predicted at 9.2 percent, down from 10 percent in 2019, while real wage after adjusting for inflation may remain constant at 5 percent next year.

The report added that India has emerged as the leader of salary growth projection in Asia.

“India has posted a strong growth despite real wages taking a hit globally. With current economic scenario and progressive reforms by the government, there is a sense of cautious optimism across sectors in India that continues to show high salary hikes," said Navnit Singh, chairman and regional managing director, Korn Ferry India.

According to the forecast, salaries are predicted to grow at around 4.9 percent globally in 2020. And, with a global inflation rate seen at 2.8 percent, real wage salary hike may come in at 2.1 percent.

The highest real wage growth of 3.1 percent is expected in Asia, accounting for 2.2 percent inflation rate. Salaries in the region are expected to grow by 5.3 percent in 2020.

According to Roopank Chaudhary, client partner at Korn Ferry India, Indian companies will continue to differentiate their top performers with high potential and critical talent sharply.

"Given the increasing cost pressures on the businesses, fixed salary sees a slow growth whereas high performers will continue to see a steady growth in total remuneration, including performance incentives (short and long term)," he said.

Across Asian countries, Indonesia is likely to have a salary growth of 8.1 percent, while employees in Malaysia, China and Korea are expected to have a salary growth of 5 percent, 6 percent and 4.1 percent, respectively. The lowest salary growth is expected in Japan and Taiwan at 2 percent and 3.9 percent, respectively.

The data was drawn from Korn Ferry's pay database, which contains data on more than 20 million job holders in 25,000 organisations across more than 130 countries.

It shows predicted salary hikes as forecasted by global HR leaders for 2020 and compares them to predictions made at this time last year regarding 2019. It also compares them to 2020 inflation forecasts from the Economist Intelligence Unit.