The salary increase for employees in 2010 in India is projected to be 10.6% as compared to 6.6% in 2009, according to a survey carried out by Hewitt Associates.

Sandeep Chaudhary of Hewitt Associates, presenting the 14th annual salary increase survey, said Indian companies are expected to out-do the MNCs in
employee salary hike with a projected 11.4% increase as compared to 10.2% for the latter.

The highest salary increase is projected in the energy, engineering and telecom sectors in the range of 12.2% to 12.8%.  The increase is slated to be 8.9% and 8.5% in the IT and ITeS sectors respectively. The IT industry will show the biggest shift of 6% change from 2.9% in 2009, the survey estimates. The IT industry, progressing towards resurgence but showing a cautious outlook, is expected to gain momentum only in mid 2010.

The trend is also positive from the prospective that the percentage of companies proposing salary cuts for 2010 have decreased to 0.7% from 7.4% last year. This year will also see a considerable decrease in layoffs or salary freeze.

The survey was conducted covering 465 companies across 20 primary industries, by the global human resource firm, Hewitt Associates in December 2009 and January 2010.