Infosys salary raise: Fact or PR spin?
By Pulkit Sharma

Indian tech major Infosys is widely regarded as a role model for professionalism and financial transparency. But is seems that even Infosys is more than happy to use any opportunity to  exaggerate and spin any piece of ‘positive’ news to build up the Infy brand and strengthen share prices. The collateral damage is to shock and awe competitors like TCS and HCL.

Last Friday, Infosys gave Economic Times the impression that it would be increasing the base salary of freshers from Rs. 3 lakh a year to over Rs. 3.25 lakh a year. 

Newspaper Economic Times duly reported the following:

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Infy to hire 20k engg grads at over 8% higher salary

BANGALORE: India’s second-largest software company Infosys will be inducting almost 20,000 engineering graduates this year at over 8.3 % higher salary from what was offered last year, even as the company seeks to cope with a lower demand for software services in its top export markets such as the US and Europe.

At a time when other industry rivals such as TCS, Wipro and HCL Technologies are deferring the joining dates for new hires, Infosys is holding on to its commitment and that too at better salary levels than last year.

“We have increased the pay package from Rs 3 lakh per annum to over Rs 3.25 lakh per annum for those joining in June this year,” Nandita Gurjar, senior vice-president and global human resources head, Infosys, told ET in an interview. “The idea is to get the best talent even during this slowdown, to provide better training and prepare them for the projects,” she added.
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After the Economic Times published this report,  India’s leading English newspaper Times of India ran the same news quoting Economic Times.  Other media in India and Gulf picked up the story.  Infosys got lots of free positive publicity.

What is the real story behind the story?  The reality is that no trainee at Infosys is paid Rs. 3 lakh a year.  Most trainees get only Rs. 14,000 a month.  Only after training and probation (usually a period of one year) does the salary become Rs. 3 lakh a year (now increased to Rs. 3.25 lakhs).  The same Economic Times report has that the ‘training period’ of each new Infosys employee has been increased from 4 months to 8 month.  This means that instead of getting a Rs. 3 lakh (now Rs. 3.25 lakh) salary in 12 months it will now be 16 months.

So, Infosys has not increased its wages bill in any substantial way.

If there is an Infosys team that deserves a pay increase for a job well done, it is their public relations team which never misses an opportunity to let the world know how good the company is.  The Infosys Public Relations team is very fortunate in that it is very easy to hype up a golden company like Infosys.