Pay Hike Boom at GCCs

Global Capability Centers (GCCs) are set to offer more substantial salary increases compared to Indian IT service providers in the upcoming fiscal year beginning April. These multinational subsidiaries aim to retain crucial talent essential for their continued expansion.

According to estimates from mass recruitment firm Teamlease shared with ET, IT services firms are projected to implement salary increases of 5-8% on average for FY26, with top performers receiving 12-14%. GCCs, however, are expected to provide an average increase of 10%, while exceptional performers could receive 15-20% increments.

Higher Starting Salaries in Emerging Technologies

Neeti Sharma, Teamlease Digital chief executive, highlighted that GCCs are currently offering 15-20% higher starting salaries to new graduates in artificial intelligence/machine learning and cloud positions during this financial year.

Salary Trends Across Different Levels

Whilst junior and mid-level positions show considerable salary variations, senior roles with over eight years of experience see similar salary increases of 27-29% across both GCCs and IT services.

Market Demand for Specialists

Cloud engineering positions show the smallest salary gap between GCCs and IT firms across all levels, indicating strong market demand for these specialists, Sharma noted.

For positions including robotic process automation developer, internet of things engineer and full-stack developer, GCCs offer approximately 12-15% higher compensation, she indicated.

UI/UX Design Compensation

In UI/UX design, GCCs provide notably higher compensation with "a median salary of Rs 27.3 lakh per annum, compared with Rs 11.7 lakh in the IT sector," Sharma said.

She attributed this difference to GCCs' focus on product development and user research capabilities, which represent newer functional areas.