Wipro will roll out a single digit salary hike along with promotions for high performers effective December 1. The Bengaluru-headquartered IT services exporter has finalised pay hike for eligible employees at the B3 and below levels, while the decision on giving increment to senior employees has not been taken yet, as per a media report.

The increments will be in line with previous years and the increments will come along with promotions for high performers.

Wipro employees are categorized in five bands starting from A to E with sub-rankings in each band based on their work experience. Wipro currently employs more than 1.85 lakh people and bands up to B3 form nearly 80% of the workforce.

Wipro, like many of its IT services peers, delayed pay hike in the beginning of this year due to the pandemic-induced slowdown.

“Our employees have shown remarkable resolve and resilience in ensuring seamless business continuity and maintaining high standards of service in these challenging times. Wipro will roll out promotions for high performers in bands up to B3, effective December 1, 2020. The increments will be in line with previous years for high performers. Wipro will continue to take a series of actions to protect critical talent in middle and senior leadership through various measures,” said a Wipro spokesperson.

Among the top five IT services companies, while TCS has rolled out pay hikes effective October 1 for all employees, Infosys has announced salary hikes for all employees beginning January next year and special incentive in December for their better performance.

Analysts suggest companies are seeing a return of near pre-Covid level demand for IT services, especially in the four-10 year experience bracket.

“The demand for professionals in that junior to mid segment has come back. We are seeing demand for IT talent in the four-10 year space has returned to prehistoric levels. Last month IT Industry’s published job openings were at about 110,000 signaling a return to normalcy,” said Kamal Karanth, co-founder, Xpheno, a specialist staffing agency. He added this trend puts pressure on the digital talent that IT services have carefully nurtured all this while.

According to Karanth, the return of hiring demand across the four IT ecosystems - product, GICs, services and startup - means there is a need to address the increments which were paused during the onset of the pandemic.