Top IT firms saw wage bills rise 5.5% even as revenue growth dips

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys and Wipro saw their wage cost in FY24 increase by more than 5.5% on average from the previous year, even as their year-on-year revenue growth slowed, averaging 3.6%.
Their cumulative wage cost went up by Rs 18,036 crore in FY24, which experts attributed to continuity in lateral hiring in high-demand areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and cloud and engineering services, coupled with the salary increments, even though they are in the lower single digits.

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Analysts said higher wage base as a result of high attrition and high demand during the Covid-19 pandemic is still acting as a headwind for IT companies wanting to normalise their wage bills.

Many resources in high-demand areas like AI and engineering services are still being laterally hired by companies at 20-30% hike, said experts.

TCS, which has more than 600,000 employees, saw its wage bill increase by 9.5℅ y-o-y. The jump was 5℅ for Infosys and 2.4℅ for Wipro. This was in contrast with companies registering negative to flat growth in recent quarters.

Also read | TCS reports dip in Q4 hiring, full-year attrition cools to 12.5%

TCS, Infosys and Wipro are three of India’s top five IT companies. They reported their