India has highest salary hikes in Asia

New Delhi: Salaries in India rose faster than any other major country in Asia this year, even as companies across the region remain under pressure to retain talent and spend more to compensate employees, a global resource company has said.

An annual survey by Hewitt Associates revealed that salaries in India rose an average 13.8 percent in 2006, with midlevel technical employees and supervisors getting the biggest hikes, the company said in a statement Thursday.

The momentum will likely continue through next year, it said. The survey covered workers 169 companies in India.

In all of Asia, the company collected information from 1,357 companies. It wasn't clear if survey also considered wages paid to manual workers in many countries.

The Philippines came second with average salary increase of 8.2 percent, while in China, salaries rose 8 percent, slower than last year's 8.3 percent.

The survey measured actual and projected salary increases, and compensation practices for five specific job categories – executives, managers, midlevel staff, clerks and manual workers.

Thailand and Malaysia saw salary hikes of 6.5 percent and 6.2 percent respectively, higher than last year. In Singapore, employees were paid 4.6 percent more in 2006, up from 3.9 percent a year ago.

Australia, South Korea and Hong Kong reported modest raises.

''Organisations are being driven to increase their spend on compensation as a result of the ongoing attraction and retention challenges we are facing in Asia,'' Nishchae Suri, head of Hewitt's Talent and Organisation Consulting Analytics practice in Asia.

''Many companies are reassessing their personnel strategies and broader business goals to ensure they are getting the most out of their talent and increasing productivity,'' Suri said.

With the pressure to retain key talent growing, an increasing number of organisations are ensuring their pay is competitive by closely monitoring market movements.

The survey included the following markets: Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, South Korea, Macau, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand.