Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has rolled out an average annual salary increase of 5 to 8% for its India workforce for FY26, with junior and mid-level employees receiving base hikes in the range of 4.5 to 7% and top performers getting double-digit increments. The disclosure was made in the company’s latest annual report.
“During the course of the year, the total increase is in the range of 5-8%, after accounting for promotions and other event-based compensation revisions,” TCS said in its annual report. Junior and mid-level employees outside India received a smaller wage increase, in the range of 1 to 6%.
Chief Human Resource Officer Sudeep Kunnumal had announced the wage revision during the company’s Q4 FY26 earnings call in April. “We are pleased to implement annual salary increases across all grades effective 1st April,” Kunnumal said at the time. He had also indicated that hikes this year would be similar to last year’s figures, suggesting a tighter pay environment compared with the pre-2024 cycles.
The hike has been rolled out alongside a steep reduction in headcount. TCS ended FY26 with 584,519 employees, down from 607,979 at the close of FY25, a drop of 23,460 employees year-on-year. In July 2025, the company had laid off about 12,000 employees as part of a wider workforce restructuring.
Kunnumal said in his Q4 commentary that the company continued to focus on building an “AI-first culture” and equipping employees with AI-ready skills. Around 2.7 lakh TCS employees now hold advanced skills in AI and machine learning, according to the company. Recruitment in FY26 was concentrated in AI, data, enterprise solutions, software engineering, cloud, cybersecurity, and digital engineering.
The wage hike comes after a delayed FY25 cycle, when TCS deferred its annual increments by five months and implemented them in September 2025. The current 5 to 8% range remains below historical TCS hike levels, which had typically sat in the 8 to 12% band in pre-pandemic years.
