Got Your Salary Revision Letter? How to Read the Hike, Variable Pay and What to Do Next

When your salary revision letter arrives, don't stop at the percentage. Check four things: the effective date and any arrears, how the increase is split between fixed pay and variable pay, whether your basic salary changed, and what your new monthly in-hand will actually be. Then decide calmly whether the hike is fair for your role and market. If it isn't, you have three sensible options: ask for a review with evidence, plan for the next cycle, or start a measured job search. Resigning on the day the letter arrives is rarely one of them.

It's that time of year in Indian IT. Infosys said in July that most of its employees would get salary hikes from October 2026, with senior employees in January. Other firms run their own cycles, and many people are reading letters this month and wondering what the numbers really mean.

Reading the letter line by line

Effective date. If the revision is effective from an earlier month than the one you'll first be paid in, you're usually owed arrears for the gap. Check whether the letter mentions arrears and in which month they'll be paid. If it doesn't say, ask HR.

Fixed vs variable. A 10% increase in CTC can mean very different things. If most of the increase sits in variable pay or performance bonus, your monthly salary may barely move, and the bonus depends on company and individual results. Infosys, for example, paid an average of 70% of quarterly variable pay for the April–June 2026 quarter. That's useful context: assuming you'll get 100% of variable pay is often optimistic.

Basic salary. Under the new labour codes, wages for PF, gratuity and some other purposes are calculated in a way that brings at least half of total pay into the count. If your company has restructured basic pay as part of the revision, your PF deduction and future gratuity can change. Our guide on how the labour codes affect salary, PF and gratuity explains this in detail.

PF changes that aren't about your hike. The EPF wage ceiling went up from ₹15,000 to ₹25,000 a month from 17 September 2026. If your PF has been calculated on the old ₹15,000 cap, your PF deduction may go up this month regardless of your hike, and some employers are recovering the September difference through October payroll. Don't mistake that for a payroll error, and don't assume it means your hike was smaller. Our guide on the new EPF wage ceiling covers it.

New in-hand. Work out your actual monthly take-home under the new structure, after PF, professional tax and income tax. This is the number that pays your rent, and it's often less exciting than the CTC figure. The CTC vs in-hand guide walks through the calculation.

Is the hike fair? How to judge it honestly

Comparing your hike with a friend's is natural but not very useful. Different companies, bands, ratings and cities make that comparison noisy. Better questions to ask yourself:

• Did your rating match your own assessment? If you expected a higher rating, the real conversation is about the rating, not the percentage.
• How does your new pay compare with similar roles in your city and experience level? Look at actual job postings that list salaries, and talk to people who recently switched.
• Is your role growing? A modest hike in a role where you're learning a lot can be worth more than a bigger hike in a dead end.

If you want to push back

It's reasonable to ask for a review. It works better when it's specific, polite and backed by evidence. Ask your manager for a short meeting, not an email thread. Bring two or three concrete pieces of work from the year and what they achieved, ideally in numbers or outcomes. Ask what would be needed for a higher rating or a band change next cycle, and ask whether a mid-year correction is possible. Some companies allow it, many don't, but asking is fine.

Our guides on having the salary conversation with your manager and writing a self-appraisal with evidence go into the specifics. A small piece of advice: don't threaten to leave unless you're actually ready to. It changes how you're seen, and it's hard to take back.

If you decide to look outside

A disappointing hike is a perfectly good reason to test the market. Just do it with a plan. Update your resume while your appraisal material is fresh, because it's the best record you'll ever have of what you did this year. Decide your minimum acceptable offer before you start, so a recruiter's first number doesn't anchor you. When an offer comes, the salary negotiation guide will help. And if your company makes a counter-offer when you resign, read this guide on counter-offers before you answer.

You can browse current openings in IT and technology on CareerCola, filtered by city and work style, to get a feel for the market before you commit to a search.

If the letter came with a low rating or a warning

That's a different situation from a small hike. Ask for the feedback in writing, understand exactly what's expected and by when, and keep notes. If it turns into a formal performance plan, our guide on what to do on a PIP will help you handle it.

Most people get through appraisal season with a hike that's neither great nor terrible. Read the letter carefully, check your payslip next month, and decide based on your career over the next two years, not the disappointment of one afternoon.