Indian pay hikes third best in Asia-Pacific

 According to figures compiled by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, Indian salaries have risen by an average 9.3 per cent a year since 2001-02. While India Inc gave salary hikes of 10 per cent in 2001-02 and 2002-03, the rise is estimated to be 8 per cent for 2003-04.

 This is substantially higher than the average annual hikes of 4.13 per cent in Australia, 2.53 per cent in Hong Kong, 2.6 per cent in Japan, 3.43 per cent in Singapore, 8.23 per cent in China and 6.06 per cent in Thailand in the period.

 Only Indonesia and the Philippines among the 14 Asia-Pacific countries saw increments higher than India at 16.03 per cent and 10.96 per cent, respectively.

 One of the reasons behind the higher increments in India is the relatively low base of compensation packages that Indians have vis-