Infosys employees finally have something to cheer about as the IT giant has begun implementing its long-awaited annual salary hikes effective from February 24. According to a Moneycontrol report citing insider sources the salary revisions range from 5 to 8 per cent with top performers receiving hikes of up to 10-12 per cent. As India’s second-largest IT services firm Infosys boasts a market capitalization of Rs. 7.32 lakh crore. The latest salary hike applies to employees in Job Levels 5 and 6 (JL5 and JL6). Those in JL5 which includes team leaders and junior-level positions will see their revised salaries applied retroactively from January 1 2024. Meanwhile JL6 employees—typically managers below the vice president level—will have their pay hikes take effect from April 1 2024. Infosys evaluates employee performance across four categories: outstanding commendable met expectations and needs improvement. Employees rated as having met expectations received a raise between 5-7 per cent while those classified under commendable performance secured hikes between 7-10%. The most outstanding performers enjoyed salary increases ranging from 10-20%. However employees in the needs improvement category were not given any raises. The recent salary increases at Infosys are reportedly 5-10% lower across all performance categories compared to the previous pay revision in November 2023. Additionally the company’s variable pay or performance bonus has also been reduced by a similar margin aligning with the ongoing industry slowdown. This salary revision follows a recent move by Infosys to cut performance-based bonuses mirroring a broader industry trend. The company which employs over 3.23 lakh professionals last revised salaries in November 2023. Employees were expecting better hikes On a day like this our MS Teams communicator groups are usually buzzing with chats. The groups have gone quiet this time as they probably expected a bigger hike. We are of course also aware the industry is passing through a challenging phase an employee told ET. Last month Infosys Chief Financial Officer Jayesh Sanghrajka mentioned that the company was planning a salary increase of 6-8% for employees in India. He added that top performers would receive significantly higher increments while salary hikes for overseas employees would remain in the low single digits.