CHENNAI: Setting a new benchmark for entry-level pay in the IT sector, Infosys on Friday said it will offer compensation of up to Rs 21 lakh per annum for specialised roles to freshers graduating in the academic year 2026.
Responding to a TNIE query, the company's chief human resources officer (CHRO) Shaji Mathew said; "Infosys continues to lead the industry in championing an AI-first approach across everything it designs and delivers for clients. He further said that achieving this vision requires not only upskilling its existing workforce but also infusing the organisation with digitally native talent with deep expertise and high learnability."
“These new hires will be guided and mentored to work on complex problems, advanced technologies, and enterprise grade platforms for our customers," he added.
According to Mathew, in previous years, the company's early hiring strategy integrated both campus hiring and off campus hiring to meet forecasted talent needs and to support just in time requirements respectively. "While we have always offered multiple roles for early career professionals, we have now expanded opportunities within the Specialist Programmer track. This includes compensation packages of up to Rs 21 lakh per annum,” he said.
The company is planning to recruit engineering and computer science students for specialised roles for a salary package of between Rs 7 lakh and Rs 21 lakh.
According to media reports, a fresher joining as a Specialist Programmer L3 (trainee) will earn Rs 21 lakh a year. Those hired as Specialist Programmer L2 will get Rs 16 lakh, while L1 trainees will earn Rs 11 lakh.
Digital Specialist Engineer (trainees) will be offered a package of Rs 7 lakh per year. These roles are open to graduates with BE, BTech, ME, MTech, MCA and integrated MSc degrees, mostly from computer science, IT, and select circuit branches like ECE and EEE.
After announcing the Q2 results, Infosys' chief financial officer (CFO) Jayesh Sanghrajka had said that the company has recruited nearly 12,000 freshers in the first half of the financial year 2026, and its target is to hire nearly 20,000 fresh graduates by end of the fiscal year.
“We have a net addition of over 8,000 employees. We had set a target at the beginning of the year to hire around 15,000 freshers for FY26,” he had said at the of the result announcement.
This new revision in salary for IT freshers will prompt other companies to reconsider their pay package at a time when the hiring in the sector has been almost flat in the past few years. As IT is the biggest employment generator in the country, the campus recruitment has remained dull in the sector. According to a Xpheno report, in December there were 13,000 openings for entry-level jobs.