Research agency Mercer International, in its new report, has identified India as one of the lowest paymasters for information technology (IT) managers.
In the report—“IT pay around the world survey 2007”— India was ranked fourth from the bottom, since Indian IT managers get an average salary of USD 25,000 a year. The survey further reveals that IT managers in Vietnam, Bulgaria and the Philippines receive the lowest pay at USD 15,470, USD 22,240 and USD 22,280 a year, respectively.
For the survey, US based Mercer compared the total annual cash compensation and total remuneration information for IT staff in 6,545 companies across 35 different countries.
IT companies have come to India due to its low cost wages and this has propelled India’s IT exports to USD 40 billion. However now, companies doing business in India say India is becoming an expensive place to do business. Techies have become expensive to afford and it is said within the next decade the gap between Indian and US techies will go away and Indian IT engineers will get the same salary as their American counterparts do.
“India continues to be among the leading destinations for IT development, given its cost advantage. Salary inflation and talent shortage could emerge as key challenges as the favoured destination. There is also an increasing evidence of India’s growing stature and presence at the high end of the software value chain, where cost advantages may not be the only driver for future growth,” said Gangapriya Chakraverti, business leader, information product solutions, Mercer India.
The study also identified the “yawning gap between junior and senior career streams” in developing countries such as India. Indonesia, Brazil, Chile and Vietnam along with India have been identified to have the highest pay progression ratios between the lowest and highest career streams.
Switzerland paid the highest salaries to IT engineers and the average pay was USD 140,960 annually.
Western Europe bagged six spots among the world’s 10 highest-paying countries as Denmark (USD 123,080), Belgium (USD 121,170) and the UK (USD 118,190) followed Switzerland in the ranking, while the US (USD 107,500) and Canada (USD 93,340) were ranked 6 and 8, respectively.
In the lower-paying countries, Vietnam again pays the least at USD 5,570, followed by the Philippines and India at USD 8,130 and USD 9,630, respectively. |