Salary bands, India: what to ask for, by role and city

Core range and labelled outliers for each role and city, from published surveys. Ask inside the core; use the outliers to spot a low offer or a real niche premium.

Each band shows a core range (where most offers land) and the outliers (top and bottom of the published market). Ask inside the core; use the outliers to spot a low offer or a real niche premium. INR lakh per annum, from published surveys; crowdsourced figures are marked and used only for percentiles.

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Software Developer (Java, JavaScript, .NET, Python)

Survey: Randstad Salary Trends 2024-25 city tables and 2025-26 national; GCC bands from Michael Page 2026 via GCC ERA.

Level	Low outlier	Core range	High outlier
Fresher, 0 to 2	₹3.4L IT services Ninja band	₹5.5 to 12L	₹28L GCC, top of band
Mid, 3 to 7	₹10L	₹16 to 32L	₹70L GCC, 5 to 10 yrs
Senior, 8 to 15	₹30L	₹40 to 62L	₹1.1 Cr GCC, 10 to 15 yrs

City	Fresher	Mid	Senior
Bengaluru	10.0 to 12.1	26.4 to 32.0	50.5 to 61.3
Pune	8.1 to 9.8	23.5 to 28.6	46.8 to 51.8
Mumbai	10.3	24.3	50.7
Hyderabad	6.8 to 8.8	20.0 to 23.3	36.5 to 43.1
Chennai	9.7 to 10.1	20.5 to 21.2	39.2 to 40.6
Delhi NCR	5.4 to 9.3	20.3 to 28.2	36.7 to 51.5

Randstad 2024-25 Java, JavaScript and .NET rows; ranges span the three stacks. Bengaluru and Pune pay 20 to 40% above Delhi NCR at the same level. IT services fresher offers (₹3.4 to 7.7L) sit below the survey core because the survey samples product and GCC employers more heavily.

Data Analyst

Survey: Randstad business analyst and data scientist rows; TeamLease Digital; PayScale (crowdsourced, 2,389 profiles, Jul 2026) for percentiles only.

Level	Low outlier	Core range	High outlier
Fresher, 0 to 2	₹2.9L 10th pct, crowdsourced	₹4 to 8L	₹12L Data-science entry
Mid, 3 to 7	₹6L	₹10 to 20L	₹34L Data scientist, Bengaluru
Senior, 8 to 15	₹18L	₹25 to 45L	₹66L Data scientist, Bengaluru

How to read an offer against this

Below the core: ask what is missing (city, employer type, skill). A fresher data offer under ₹4L in a tier-1 city is below market unless it is a non-tech employer.
Inside the core: negotiate within it using Guide 06; cite the upper number.
Above the core: it is a premium for AI/ML, cloud, cyber or data engineering (25 to 50% per Michael Page, Mercer and Xpheno) or a GCC (up to 20% over IT services). It will not travel to a non-premium employer.

Employer type, 2026 increments

Employer type	Avg hike	Note
GCCs	9.3 to 9.8%	Pay up to 20% above IT services for the same role
Product and platforms	9.4%	Highest fixed pay; ESOPs on top
E-commerce	8.8%	Variable-heavy
IT services and consulting	6.6%	Lowest hikes; highest volume

Aon Salary Increase Survey 2026 (24 Feb 2026); Mercer (Dec 2025); TeamLease Digital.

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