India to top Asia salary growth in 2010 - survey

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Companies in Asia are set to offer bigger pay rises next year as the region continues to rebound from global recession, notably in India where base salary levels are poised to jump nearly 10 percent, a survey showed on Wednesday.

Salaries in Indonesia and China will also surge, by 8.7 percent and 6.7 percent respectively, whereas workers in Japan can expect a paltry 2.1 percent pay rise, according to the survey by Hewitt Associates. The survey covered more than 2,000 local and joint-venture companies in the Asia-Pacific region.

Salaries -- or annual guaranteed pay -- this year in Asia's fast-growing economic powerhouses China and India, at 4.5 percent and 6.3 percent respectively, were the lowest since 2005, Hewitt said.

Salaries barely grew at all in Hong Kong and Japan, this year as companies cut staff. More than 60 percent of companies surveyed in Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore froze wage levels, compared with only 26.1 percent in India and 30.8 percent in China.

Next year, only 6 percent of companies in India and 8.3 percent in China expect to freeze pay compared with 12-14 percent of companies in Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia.

Overall average Projected

salary increase salary increase

2009 (pct) 2010 (pct)

India 6.3 9.2