Salary rise is an important question and employees are eager to know the amount they would be able to withdraw. Every working professional looks forward to that annual increment announcement, and for 2026, there’s good news on the horizon.

According to Aon’s Annual Salary Increase and Turnover Survey 2025-26 for India, employees can expect an average salary hike of 9% next year.

But here’s where it gets interesting, your increment could be significantly higher or lower depending on which sector you work in.

BEST PAYING INUSTRIES IN 2026

If you’re working in the automotive or engineering sectors, you’re in luck. Both Automotive/Vehicle Manufacturing and Engineering Design Services are expected to get the highest salary bumps at 10.2% each.

For automotive workers, this is particularly good news as it represents a solid jump from the 9.1% they received in 2025.

NBFC employees can also smile as they are likely to get 10% hikes, same as this year. If you’re in a Global Capability Centre, expect around 9.9%, while those in Life Sciences can look forward to 9.8%.

Tech professionals who’ve been through a rough patch have reasons to be cautiously optimistic. Technology Consulting and Services, which gave a measly 7% hike in 2025, is bouncing back with 8.1% for 2026. It’s still below the market average, but it’s a step in the right direction.

Those working for Technology Platform and Products companies are getting 9.3%, up from 9% this year.

Retail workers have something to cheer about as salary hikes are expected to jump from 9% to 9.8%. The chemicals industry and paper/packaging manufacturing are both moving from 8.5% to 9.2%, showing that traditional industries are holding their ground.

There’s barely any difference between what junior staff and senior executives are getting.

Junior management gets the slight edge with 9.5% (up from 9.3% in 2025), while middle management stays steady at 8.9% and senior management remains at 8.5%. The gap between the lowest and highest management levels is just one percentage point.

If you’re in banking, don’t expect fireworks as the increment is expected to rise marginally, from 8.5% to just 8.6%. Financial institutions are steady at 9.1%, while funds/asset management and life insurance are holding at 9.5% each.

Remember the Great Resignation madness of 2022 when everyone was jumping ships? Those days are clearly behind us. Employee attrition peaked at 21.4% in 2022, came down to 17.7% in 2024, and is expected to drop further to 17.1% by 2025.

This means companies are finding it easier to keep their people happy, and employees are becoming more choosy about switching jobs.

Your salary hike in 2026 will largely depend on where you work. The spread is quite wide – from a low of 8.1% in tech consulting to a high of 10.2% in automotive and engineering. That’s a difference of over 2 percentage points, which could mean thousands of rupees more or less in your annual package.

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