IN June this year, wealth conducted a poll on salary hikes you got in this year's appraisal. Here is a snapshot of the results:

45 per cent got a hike of less than 10 per cent
33 per cent got a hike between 10 to 20 per cent
22 per cent got a hike over 20 per cent

Summary: a majority of you got a hike less than 20 per cent.

And, if we go by a survey of Indian corporates conducted by Hewitt Associates, then the next year may not get any better.

The survey suggests that the global economic slowdown, the US-sub prime crisis and rising inflation have led to companies to re-think their salary budgets for the year 2009.

The survey predicts:

--Salary hike of junior level employees in 2009: 14.4 per cent (compared to 15.2 per cent in 2008)
--Salary hike of mid-level employees in 2009: 13.8 per cent (compared to 14.6 per cent in 2008)
--Salary hike in infrastructure sector in 2009: 18.8 percent (compared to 24.1 per cent in 2008)
--Salary hike in banking, financial services and insurance in 2009: 14.2 per cent (compared to 16.5 per cent in 2008)
--Salary hike in manufacturing in 2009: 15.1 per cent (compared to 15.4 per cent in 2008).
--The telecom sector will see continued growth in India, whereas the IT-ITES sectors which have been adversely affected by the recent dollar-rupee volatility and economic slowdown is treading cautiously on salaries.

The predictions are indeed gloomy.

wealth spoke to financial planner Arvind Rao of Dreamz Infinite, who has some smart tips for getting tough to face the crunch.

On page 2: Smart tips to face the crunch

(Photograph used for illustrative purposes only)

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e-mail: Suraj Anand

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