TCS Unveils the Factors Keeping Fresher Salaries at ₹3-4 Lakhs for Years

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s largest IT services company, has revealed the reasons behind the stagnant salaries of freshers in the industry for many years. In an interview with CNBC TV18, TCS’ chief human resources officer (CHRO) Milind Lakkad, said, “We are paying based on the talent and we encourage people to come at different cadres of talent coming in.”

Lakkad explained that TCS has different hiring programs for freshers, such as the National Qualifier Test (NQT), which offers an average salary of ₹3.36 lakhs to ₹8 lakhs per annum, depending on their college and qualifications. He also said that TCS has a digital hiring program, which pays higher salaries to freshers who have skills in emerging technologies like cloud, analytics, and artificial intelligence.

According to AmbitionBox, a platform that provides salary insights for various companies, the average annual salary of a fresher at TCS is ₹3.7 lakhs, which is 21% more than the average fresher salary in IT services and consulting companies for 0-2 years of experience. However, this salary is lower than some of TCS’ competitors like Oracle and Microsoft, which offer ₹11.5 lakhs and ₹38.9 lakhs respectively to freshers.

Lakkad said that TCS is not concerned about the salary gap with other companies, as it believes that it offers a better career growth and learning opportunity to its employees. He also said that TCS has a strong retention rate of 90%, which shows that its employees are satisfied with the company’s culture and values.