Salaries of Indian workers increased by nearly 15% in the last year, which is the highest increase in Asia.  Behind India were China and the Philippines, which both saw salary increases of about 8%.  Other high growth countries were Korea (7%) and Thailand (6.5%).  The lowest salary increase was in Japan, where the average increase in salary was less than 3%.  Hong Kong fared slightly better at just over 3%.

Rewarding performance with increased salaries is seen as a good way of attracting and retaining skilled professionals.  With high turnover and attrition levels in today´s highly competitive business environment, keeping employees happy and productive has become increasingly important.  The skills shortage in Asia has led to fierce competition amongst companies to find and hire skilled business professionals.  In China, the growth in salary has outpaced inflation (about 2%) significantly, leading some companies to cut back on costs by moving to smaller cities or reducing expatriate salary and benefit packages.