The elderly professionals do not have to continue living in large cities to receive the highest salaries. According to a recent report released by Randstad India, Tier-2 cities are closing in on the pay gap with Tier-1 hubs very fast. The trends of compensation that we observe are the movement towards more leaders being employed by companies within a broader geographic audience. Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Thane, Surat, Jaipur, and Indore are some of the cities that are becoming powerful employment centres. The average cost-to-company of senior professionals in these markets has risen to 28.38 lakh. Packages of packages in leading Tier-2 hubs are already getting near Tier-1 senior averages of approximately ₹32.40 lakh.
This change is not motivated by the low prices only. Several Tier 2 cities are becoming clusters of Global Capability Centre that demand niche and senior skills. Employers today are willing to pay competitive wages irrespective of their location, where technology, analytics, and leadership issues are usually difficult to fill. Viswanath P s, the managing director and chief executive officer of Randstad India, opined that recent years are turning out to be the era of decentralisation in the Indian job market. He observed that an increase in senior compensation levels in the regional hubs is an indicator of a more balanced economy. This is an indicator to us that opportunity is dispersed.
Tier-1 salaries, in their turn, are constant. The average salary in the country is 5.92 lakh in junior positions, 16.70 lakh in middle-level worker positions, and 32.40 lakh in senior employee positions. Instead of spikes, there is the indication of a mature compensation framework with a gradual increase in sectors. There is still increasing technology being used to dominate pay scales at all levels. The average low-level IT positions attract remunerations of ₹6.65 lakh, middle-level attracts 20.75 lakh, and senior professionals attract 35.66 lakh. The areas of AI, cloud computing, cybersecurity, data engineering, and DevOps are in short supply, which increases the salaries.
The non-technological industries are also picking up. Energy, utilities, IT-enabled services, infrastructure, and media record a gradual increase in salaries. These trends, in our opinion, render Tier-2 cities more desirable besides offering them the chance to earn more and also experience a lower cost of living, without diminishing their career growth.
