Forbes India Spl: India Inc cuts down on salary

TROUBLED TIMES: A financial advisor holds his head after seeing the Dow Jones crash.

ibnlive.com is on mobile now. Read news, watch videos
be a Citizen Journalist. Log on to m.ibnlive.com NOW!

Related Stories

• Global Recession: India for cap on CEO salaries

• Top three US car makers seek $34 bn bailout

• Where do you stand in the global credit crunch?

Top Headlines

Top Videos

Most Popular

• AI stuffs extra passengers on a flight, faces action 

• Obama sees G8 climate progress, UN disagrees 

• Infosys declares Q1 results, net profit falls by 5.33 pc 

• China shuts down mosques in riot-hit Xinjiang 

• FTN: Religious heads' straight take: gays are immoral 

• Crazy fans Sania's biggest worry on engagement day 

• Gujarat dry status an ideological hangover? 

• Manmohan meets Obama during G8 meeting 

• Pawar says India well-stocked for 13 months 

• Manmohan, Gilani fix up meeting without a date 

• MP drought-hit 

• Sariska tigers siblings, incest dangerous: Experts 

• 2016 Games contenders go all out to woo voters 

• Watch: Zardari admits to nurturing terrorists 

• SC takes up plea against gay sex, issues notice 

• CJ: Delhi-based builders make off with money 

• Pune reels under 40 per cent water cuts 

• RTI against college lands DCE student in trouble 

• Sports officer attacked for fighting corruption 

• Watch: Ferreira talks about sports and Union Budget 

• Burger King apologises to Hindus for offensive ad 

• Meet Lt Colonel Mohanlal, first actor to join Army  

• FTN: Religious heads' straight take: gays are immoral 

• Infosys declares Q1 results, net profit falls by 5.33 pc 

• Gujarat dry status an ideological hangover? 

• Pawar says India well-stocked for 13 months 

• Mysore: PFI activists clash with police, lathicharged 

• AI stuffs extra passengers on a flight, faces action 

• Manmohan, Gilani fix up meeting without a date 

• Suspected Dawood aide acquitted in fake currency case 

Photogallery

Find us on Facebook | Join IBNLive community

Stay ahead with G-Talk Buddy | Click now!

Mumbai: Vinnie Raizada, 28, (name changed) knows the party is over.

Raizada, a finance executive, was living the fast life exactly a year back. He moved from Pune to Mumbai last October when he was offered double the salary, a generous bonus plan and attractive incentives by a financial services firm.

The money was good and quality of life improved as the move enabled him to live well after paying off three loan payments worth Rs 50,000. Fast forward to October 2008 and he has moved back to Pune. Reeling under the credit crisis, his employer asked him to take a 50 per cent pay cut: from Rs 25 lakh per annum to Rs 13 lakh. He packed his bags. "I couldn't survive in that salary in Mumbai," says Raizada.

He went back to Pune, where he has a house, took up a job with a retail bank and settled for a pay cut. "My biggest priority is right now safety," he says. His current boss is less or as much qualified as him. "But I don't have much choice – I am lucky I have a job. Many don't even have this," he says.

Indeed. He was able to land himself a job quickly. As the credit crunch strengthens its hold over the globe, high-flying executives with incredible pedigree (IIT, IIM graduates) suddenly find they are the pariahs of business.

Ex-masters of the universe

These golden boys are taking a good hard look at themselves while companies are doing a reality check. "Many of them have impeccable track records. It's not that they are no longer good. Just that at that price they are no longer attractive," says Vikram Bhardwaj, head, Redileon Search, an executive search firm. He has at least 200 such resumes in his bank.

"Companies just think they are overpaid and are turning them down," says Bhardwaj.

Five years of buoyant economic growth saw attrition rise to the mid-twenty levels across sectors as companies fell over themselves wooing the best executives at double their salaries. "For many junior and mid-level executives, salaries have doubled in the last two-three years," says Sandeep Choudhury, compensation expert, Hewitt Associates. Not any more.

As the stock market plunges and the credit squeeze tightens its noose, the froth in the job market is beginning to settle down. A breathless India Inc. is worried. The hardest hit evidently is the financial services sector. But IT and ITEs, realty, aviation and retail aren't far behind.