Insights · Topic
Pay & compensation
Salary intelligence read from live GCC placements — what roles actually pay and where the bands are moving — not from a benchmark survey.
The published band and the closed offer are two different numbers
One is written by people not running mandates. The other is what the candidate actually signs. Only one of them should set your budget.
The AI/ML band didn’t shift — it split in two
Traditional ML sits where it was a year ago. The GenAI end has pulled away. Price them as one band and you lose the top while over-paying the bottom.
Compensation Index — IT & BFSI edition, Q2 2026
Band-by-band movement across senior IT and BFSI GCC roles, drawn from placements closed this quarter — not survey aggregates.
What the 75th percentile is actually buying you
It sounds rigorous. In the senior segment it’s a way to avoid taking a position — and it loses to the ninetieth-percentile counter every time.
Base, variable, ESOP — and the one most committees under-weight
At VP level the parent ESOP can carry more of the deal than the cash. If you’re competing without one, splitting the difference loses the candidate.
Your offer-accept rate is the comp metric you’re not reading
Most tracking stops at the offer made. The number that tells you whether your pay is actually competitive sits one step later.
The Science of Hiring: how counter-offers are re-pricing the senior bench
A working comp lead on why counter-offer economics have changed, and how they now set bands before the survey data catches up.
Pharma GCC pay is moving for a reason IT isn’t
While IT and BFSI bands have steadied, senior pharma roles are climbing. The driver is regulatory-side, not technology-side.
The variable-pay mix is where the real negotiation happens
Two offers with the same headline can be worth very different things. The candidates who win read the structure; the ones who lose anchor to the top line.
Band compression is quietly hollowing out your mid-tier
When the top of the band races ahead and the middle doesn’t, your best mid-level people can read the gap. Usually before you can.
How to read a salary benchmark without being misled
The method note. Every published benchmark carries a lag and a basket bias — here’s what to inspect before you set a band from one.
Five minutes: the counter-offer economics comp models miss
A quick, chart-led walkthrough of what a counter-offer really costs — and why the number rarely lands in the model that set the band.
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What is the salary increase in India for 2026?
Salaries in India are projected to rise about 9.1% in 2026 (up from 8.9% in 2025), according to Aon’s Annual Salary Increase & Turnover Survey 2025–26, which covers more than 1,400 organisations across 45 industries. Mercer projects a similar ~9% in its India survey — so the two gold-standard comp houses converge on roughly 9%. Aon also reports attrition easing to 16.2%.
When Aon and Mercer land on the same number, it’s a safe planning anchor. It is also a commodity: every organisation setting a budget is working from the same ~9%, which means the average tells you almost nothing about the roles you’re actually fighting to hire.
The Recruise read. The single average hides the dispersion that decides a senior offer. A GenAI lead and a traditional-ML lead no longer sit in one band; a VP’s parent ESOP can carry more of the deal than the cash increment. The number we work from isn’t the published survey band — it’s what comparable senior mandates actually closed at this quarter, role by role and city by city. That’s the gap between a benchmark and an offer that gets signed.
Why the published band and the closed offer are two different numbersThe compensation questions.
The salary numbers everyone plans from — and why the average is the least useful figure once you’re making a senior offer.
What is the average salary increase in India for 2026?
What is the attrition rate in India in 2026?
Is the ~9% average enough to set a senior GCC offer?
One pattern worth knowing, every week.
Thursday morning. Five minutes. Our weekly read on the senior GCC talent market — including where compensation bands are actually moving. One chart, one pattern, no noise.
If compensation is what brought you here, these are usually the next questions.
Talent & recruitment
The mechanics of hiring well in a market that rewards speed over judgment. The judgment part.
Attrition & retention
Why people leave, why people stay, and which interventions actually move the numbers.
The future of GCC hiring
Where this market is going, and which parts of the current playbook won’t survive the next three years.