For a long time I was contemplating whether to write this mail or not, but an unwanted and unnecessary mail helped me take a decision in favour of writing these comments here.
We have many dreams like,
- entering a B School and cracking that 1crore + job,
- or being ‘down to earth’ and be just on the right side of the average figure say 19+3 =22 lakh salary for the next year;
- Or may be, just to teach a lesson to school kids throwing stones on your car window.
On my recent flight from Hyderabad to Kolkata, I met a gentleman from US. He asked how the B Schools in India could announce such grand figures like 1 crore + salaries when the US economy is under recession and can barely afford such costly employees just out of school. (And when top US B-Schools are not commanding such figures like USD 360000 which convert to the so called Rs 1.44 crore per annum figure)
Then I asked him back ‘why not, we are the brightest guys, after all- Aren’t we’?
He explained me the following:
1crore + has a huge component of bonus; with organizations losing 40-50% of their assets in last 1 year, employees are getting fired and who will offer such bonuses now? So talk of ‘actual’ figures USD 160000 to USD 110000, which most people will get.
With Federal, State and other taxes adding up to 43-44% of the salary and with other health insurances included, barely 50% of the gross salary is received. So make the above amount 50% of quoted figure
The one time joining allowance is also a major component of the gross ‘salary’ figure quoted so happily remove it forever.
If the earning is in dollar, so are the expenses and those are obviously huge so if you still have a coffee for Rs 10 in India then you pay Rs 300 for that abroad so the money flies away.
At the same time, the dollar has lost a lot of its power with respect to many currencies and so now commands less money value,
With all that, the standard of living thus affordable and the resultant savings is much less than compared to an Indian salary of say 15-20 lakh. So while the poor fellow would be struggling for the next one year just to cling to his job, claiming such figures is ‘wrong’ as that money would not be earned at the year end.
Even if in the past someone had managed fat bonuses for ‘claiming business’, they are now harvesting the crop in the form of sub prime for just getting that ‘cheap business on the account book’ and so most such smart people are now being fired left, right and centre. And when the hawks are not able to survive the present situation, what value will the doves bring?
What’s worse is
The magnitude of sub prime crises is huge; and only part losses have been reflected so far so as to gradually absorb the shock. So not only the present is tough but the future also doesn’t look rosy.
The credit card crises may further unfold.
The oil prices are soaring and so the winter may be cold (for less availability of oil) and hot (for the high oil prices).
Amidst this background I believe when the B Schools ‘doctor’ their salary figures to lure unsuspecting candidates, they command different capabilities of inflating those figures. For example, an I-banker can oblige his alma mater by putting a component of 3X year end bonus (tagged to performance targets which are obviously undeliverable in these conditions) and create a news paper sensation without possibly losing a single $ at the end of the forthcoming year.
In contrast, another B School with a pathetic finance curriculum and ‘almost’ no alumni in decent I-Banks (if there is any left now) will have to ride piggyback on its God father’s resources. But in the present situation when the crises is partly driven by the Real Estate, the back door entry to the 1 crore club through international real estate jobs also gets a beating.
So what to do next having yourself started this unethical warfare of bogus salary claims?
Obviously pretend holy and pass the buck to the enlightened student body for taking a decision to not to disclose the maximum figures (until the next year when you are able to manage one such figure). After all this is all what you did for one year ‘you scratch my back, I scratch your @#$.
(Next: Busting the average salary)
We have many dreams like,
- entering a B School and cracking that 1crore + job,
- or being ‘down to earth’ and be just on the right side of the average figure say 19+3 =22 lakh salary for the next year;
- Or may be, just to teach a lesson to school kids throwing stones on your car window.
On my recent flight from Hyderabad to Kolkata, I met a gentleman from US. He asked how the B Schools in India could announce such grand figures like 1 crore + salaries when the US economy is under recession and can barely afford such costly employees just out of school. (And when top US B-Schools are not commanding such figures like USD 360000 which convert to the so called Rs 1.44 crore per annum figure)
Then I asked him back ‘why not, we are the brightest guys, after all- Aren’t we’?
He explained me the following:
1crore + has a huge component of bonus; with organizations losing 40-50% of their assets in last 1 year, employees are getting fired and who will offer such bonuses now? So talk of ‘actual’ figures USD 160000 to USD 110000, which most people will get.
With Federal, State and other taxes adding up to 43-44% of the salary and with other health insurances included, barely 50% of the gross salary is received. So make the above amount 50% of quoted figure
The one time joining allowance is also a major component of the gross ‘salary’ figure quoted so happily remove it forever.
If the earning is in dollar, so are the expenses and those are obviously huge so if you still have a coffee for Rs 10 in India then you pay Rs 300 for that abroad so the money flies away.
At the same time, the dollar has lost a lot of its power with respect to many currencies and so now commands less money value,
With all that, the standard of living thus affordable and the resultant savings is much less than compared to an Indian salary of say 15-20 lakh. So while the poor fellow would be struggling for the next one year just to cling to his job, claiming such figures is ‘wrong’ as that money would not be earned at the year end.
Even if in the past someone had managed fat bonuses for ‘claiming business’, they are now harvesting the crop in the form of sub prime for just getting that ‘cheap business on the account book’ and so most such smart people are now being fired left, right and centre. And when the hawks are not able to survive the present situation, what value will the doves bring?
What’s worse is
The magnitude of sub prime crises is huge; and only part losses have been reflected so far so as to gradually absorb the shock. So not only the present is tough but the future also doesn’t look rosy.
The credit card crises may further unfold.
The oil prices are soaring and so the winter may be cold (for less availability of oil) and hot (for the high oil prices).
Amidst this background I believe when the B Schools ‘doctor’ their salary figures to lure unsuspecting candidates, they command different capabilities of inflating those figures. For example, an I-banker can oblige his alma mater by putting a component of 3X year end bonus (tagged to performance targets which are obviously undeliverable in these conditions) and create a news paper sensation without possibly losing a single $ at the end of the forthcoming year.
In contrast, another B School with a pathetic finance curriculum and ‘almost’ no alumni in decent I-Banks (if there is any left now) will have to ride piggyback on its God father’s resources. But in the present situation when the crises is partly driven by the Real Estate, the back door entry to the 1 crore club through international real estate jobs also gets a beating.
So what to do next having yourself started this unethical warfare of bogus salary claims?
Obviously pretend holy and pass the buck to the enlightened student body for taking a decision to not to disclose the maximum figures (until the next year when you are able to manage one such figure). After all this is all what you did for one year ‘you scratch my back, I scratch your @#$.
(Next: Busting the average salary)
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