Key takeaways
- Cognizant offers a salary of INR 2.5 LPA for freshers, unchanged since 2002.
- Many criticize the low salary, claiming it is inadequate for living in metro cities.
- User comments highlight the disparity between tech salaries and other professions in India.
- Despite salary stagnation, Cognizant is expanding operations, creating over 1,500 new jobs.
- Concerns grow over the diminishing value of degrees in the Indian job market.
The IT industry seems to love its employees a little too much. It is not some kind of major breakthrough that the salaries offered by these Indian tech giants are way too low, but Cognizant has set a new record this time and is being heavily trolled for it.
“My driver makes way more than that…,” commented one user on X when they came across the news that Cognizant is offering a salary of Rs 2.52 lakh per annum for a third year undergraduate, which roughly boils down to Rs 20,000 per month.
The saddest part about this is that it’s the same package that was offered in 2002. Nothing has changed. “No house, no free commutation, no free food. All this to be managed in just 18 to 19K rupees after PF deduction in metro cities,” added the user.
The salary is barely peanuts. “Degrees have become useless in India,” said a user, which is similar to a discussion a while back about developers in India being more likely to be unemployed if they are educated.
Expanding Base and Capabilities, But Not Pay
Adding to all of this, Cognizant is expanding its operations across the country. Most recently, it opened its first centre in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, a move set to create over 1,500 jobs with the potential to grow to 20,000 in the future. Cognizant’s expansion in Indore adds to its existing presence in cities like Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, and others across India.
Right now, Hyderabad has become Cognizant’s biggest centre globally, replacing Chennai from the top spot with around 57,000 employees.
Cognizant also went on a spree of partnering with companies for generative AI capabilities aimed at its employees. Just this year, it partnered with Microsoft and ServiceNow to integrate generative AI for employees, making a generative AI-powered digital workspace.
The IT giant was also actively hiring in FY23 but the numbers for FY24 are yet to be revealed. Cognizant hired around 60,000 freshers, unlike TCS, Infosys, or Wipro. But it seems like this comes at the cost of not offering good enough pay to its employees.
“2.52 LPA is very generous. What will the graduates do with so much money?” remarked a user on X, while another added that this is why the younger generation is content with making reels on Instagram.
This year, Cognizant also gave poor salary hikes, with developers on Reddit pointing out this was despite the fact that the company has the highest paid CEO earning Rs 186 crore per year. “Why can’t they have minimum wage criteria in all the sectors,” asked a user on X. Another said that they get more money with cashbacks than this.
The truth is that there are people who are ready to take any job they get and this salary is more than appealing to them. As Debarghya ‘Deedy’ Das puts it, “It's simple. If you think it's too low, find another job. If you want 186 cr, start the next Cognizant,” he said.
The Same With All of the Indian IT
Some people make the argument that the companies, though they’re offering less salaries, are also upskilling them with generative AI to make them ready for the future market, and possibly making them prepare for a business.
If the wage is too low, “Cognizant should get 0 employees, then they will realise they raise the salary. If they got 10,000 employees doing this, then you are wrong and it's not too low,” Das replied to another post.
To explain this point, TCS recently also had 80,000 job openings that they could not fill citing a skill gap as the reason. The company is still looking for people for the roles of Ninja, Digital, and Prime. Interestingly, the Ninja category offers a package of Rs 3.3 LPA for various roles, while the other two roles offer a range between Rs 9 and Rs 11.5 LPA.
Most of the IT giants have stopped hiring, but people would still love to work there to start somewhere. Moreover, there is almost no hike at TCS. To put inflationary pressures into perspective, Jio and Airtel have hiked their prices by 25%, but TCS gave only around a 1% hike to its employees.
There is an oversupply of engineers in India, which makes it clear that all these job openings can get easily filled. This makes Cognizant’s risky bet not so risky as the backlash will die soon as soon as the seats are filled.
But this also puts the perspective of why graduates are shying away from IT companies. They get better salaries at startups and even GCCs in India. Indian IT giants are not even trying to lure new joinees anymore.
