Infosys said on Thursday that it is not planning to hike salaries for freshers, while its peers have announced an increase in salaries for entry-level jobs.
However, India's second largest IT firm Infosys wants to raise the stipend payment rather than increasing the compensation packages for the campus recruits.
"We are taking a slightly different approach. We are not increasing the (fresher) compensation broad-based, but are trying to put similar kind of money or even more in our internship programme because it has a very strong correlation to those people joining us," U B Pravin Rao, chief operating officer, said while addressing the Citi Global Technology Conference in New York.
Salaries for freshers in the Indian IT industry have remained stagnant at Rs 3 lakh to Rs 3.25 lakh per annum over the past decade.
"One thing that people are talking about is giving Rs 3.3 lakh (per annum) as a starting salary for new entrants. But today, we (Infosys) are not far behind; we are already offering Rs 3.25 lakh, which is even ahead of some of our competitors," Business Standard quoted Rao, as saying.
Recently, the top companies like Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTS) are reported to have decided to hike salaries for freshers by 10-12% after many years.
Employees selected through campus recruitment at engineering colleges for entry-level jobs will now see 10-12% increase in salaries compared to that offered last year, NDTV Profit reported.
Analysts say that salaries for freshers remain unchanged due to increasing focus on automation and "oversupply of qualified manpower".
In 2013, a report by Credit Suisse had said that "real wages of entry-level staffers in the IT sector was at the lowest in more than 15 years".
