GCCs set to offer an average salary hike of 9.9% in FY25, outpacing IT services

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India’s Global Capability Centres (GCCs) will likely offer an average salary hike of 9.9 percent for FY25, outpacing the 8.1 percent increment projected by IT services firms, a report by Talent500, the GCC hiring platform by ANSR has said.

Employees from the retail and consumer packaged goods (CPG) GCCs will receive the highest average salary increments at 10.4 percent, whereas healthcare and life sciences trails at 10.1 percent. Employees of travel and transportation GCCs are next, at 9.8 percent, followed by BFSI at 9.6 percent.

The increments for FY25 are expected to be higher compared to the previous fiscal, where GCCs rolled out 9.7 percent salary hikes, while services companies handed over 7.4 percent increments.

“As GCCs become core to enterprise strategy, the way they think about talent is continuously evolving, adapting to new business needs, technologies, and expectations,” Vikram Ahuja, Co-Founder, ANSR and CEO, 1Wrk said.

The report also finds that voluntary attrition has sharply declined to 12.6 percent from 16.9 percent in FY24 due to investments in career development, culture building, and better employee experience.

Organisations are also increasingly offering non-merit increases, i.e., salary hikes driven not by individual performance but by cost of living, inflation, and market corrections, to remain competitive in a tight labour market, the report said.

Over 70 percent of the GCCs now offer Long-Term Incentives (LTIs), including Employee Stock Option Plans (ESOPs), Restricted Stock Units (RSUs), and Stock Appreciation Rights (SARs).

The report said incentives are designed not only for wealth creation but to cultivate a stronger sense of ownership and alignment with strategic business outcomes. While ESOPs dominate at 71 percent, RSUs account for 20 percent, and SARs make up the remaining 8 percent.

A key trend highlighted by the report is the increasing use of AI and analytics in making smarter compensation decisions, from real-time pay equity audits to personalised rewards and agile talent strategies.

In addition, there's an upward trend in actual variable payouts, which shows improved performance both at the individual and organisational level. The variable payout formed 11.2 percent of the total salary in FY23, as against 13.9 percent expected in FY25.