Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, Infosys Ltd, HCL Technologies Ltd, Wipro Ltd and Tech Mahindra Ltd collectively employ more than 1.5 million employees as of March 2025. Low business due to demand uncertainty means salary hikes might be deferred or lower than the previous fiscal, or both.
Mumbai-based TCS that gives pay hikes around April-July period has deferred its wage hike plans, citing macroeconomic uncertainty.
“Regarding wage hikes, considering the uncertain business environment, we will decide during the year when to make that happen,” said Milind Lakkad, TCS’s chief HR officer, during the company’s post-earnings press interaction on 10 April.
Wipro echoed a similar opinion. Its management said that it would look at hikes later in the year closer to September. “In an uncertain environment, we will decide closer to the date,” said Govil.
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Meanwhile, Noida-based HCLTech said its wage hike cycle would start as planned from October 2025, in line with last year.
TCS was the first of the top five IT services companies to roll out salary hikes, giving increments of 4.5-7% in the April-June 2024 period, whereas Bengaluru-based Wipro handed out 4-8% from September last year.
Much like its peers, Tech Mahindra’s annual pay increments were pushed back for the second year running, as software service providers looked to combat low demand and shore up operating margins last year. The company gave hikes in the January-March 2025 period.
Infosys and HCL Tech give pay hikes in two tranches. While certain Infosys executives got their hikes at the start of the month, HCL Tech finished rolling out its second tranche of hikes in January-March 2025, as per the company’s management.
The uncertainty in hikes comes as companies look to boost their profitability. Infosys, HCL Tech, Wipro and Tech Mahindra increased their operating margins last fiscal by 40 bps, 10 bps, 100 bps, and 360 bps, respectively. One basis point is a hundredth of a percentage point. TCS’s margins fell 30 bps on a yearly basis.
TCS, Infosys, HCL Tech, Wipro and Tech Mahindra ended FY25 with $30.18 billion, $19.28 billion, $13.84 billion, $10.51 billion, and $6.26 billion in revenue, respectively.
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“There is considerable consternation and uncertainty in the market,” said Peter Bendor-Samuel, founder of Everest Group, a Dallas-based tech research firm. “Whereas there is clearly significant pent-up demand after two years of deceleration, the tariff-driven uncertainty is causing clients in many industries to delay significant projects until the direction of economic travel is determined. This is causing the service providers to take a defensive posture regarding talent and move cautiously,” he added.
Companies were slightly more positive on hiring, though only Infosys has set a target for the year. However, even for the companies that promised to increase hiring, plans appear tentative.
Second-largest IT company Infosys said it is looking to hire 20,000 employees in FY26. TCS said it would hire a similar number or higher than the 42,000 trainees it onboarded in FY25, while HCL Tech would increase entry-level hiring this year from last year’s 7,829.
“We’re going to make our plans on a quarter-on-quarter basis. We’re not trying to define an annual plan. In the current climate, it’s a lot more prudent to make plans quarterly,” said Ramachandran Sundararajan, chief human resource officer for HCL Tech, in the company’s post-earnings press conference on 22 April, adding the company will target hiring at least 2,000 freshers every quarter.
Smaller peer Wipro also flagged caution on hiring.
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“We will have to take it as it comes from a growth perspective, where we have geared ourselves from a plan of onboarding people, especially from the campuses, on a regular basis,” said Saurabh Govil, chief HR officer, Wipro, in the company’s post-earnings press conference on 16 April.
“But we are also very cognizant that we shouldn’t do anything which is onboard people and not deploy them. Or, you know, hire people and we can’t take them, which we have burnt our fingers three years back,” added Govil. The company added approximately 10,000 freshers in FY25.
Fifth-largest company Tech Mahindra also avoided giving out a hiring target, adding the company would hire based on demand visibility, which he said was “muddy.” The company added 6,100 campus recruits last fiscal.
Fresher hiring or new hiring is an indicator of demand in the market. More hiring signals greater demand for IT services and vice-versa.
Another uncertainty in hiring stems from Gen AI.
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“The execution model is expected to become less location-dependent, with a mix of 50% people and 50% agentic solutions. This shift is a gradual journey, and there are clients already keen to adopt this approach,” said Girish Pai, head of capital research at Bank of Baroda Capital Research, in a note dated 23 April, after HCL Tech announced its full-year earnings.
Four of the top five including TCS, Infosys, Wipro, and Tech Mahindra added headcount ranging between 722 employees and 6,433 employees. HCL Tech cut headcount last fiscal by 4,061 employees.
