No pay hikes for one fifth of privately held businesses in 2009

Economic Times online 26/02/2009

The Grant Thornton report reveals further that the gloomiest salary predictions come from Asia Pacific where 29% of PHBs will offer no pay rise in 2009. Asia Pasific is job a market where labour is still plentiful and there has been a fall in demand for skilled workers, jobs are valuable and employees are relatively easier to replace. While commenting on these results Monish Chatrath, National Markets Leader for Grant Thornton India said, "Perhaps more worrying for employees is that a significant number of PHBs (60%) in India intend to increase salaries of their staff only in line with inflation. With the current low inflation rates, this will translate into relatively modest increases in salary levels and this does not offer much comfort to employees who are already struggling in the downturn."