Salary Negotiation FAQ for Indian Job Seekers
Direct answers on sharing your current CTC, what hike is realistic, handling "the offer is final," and whether Prepair's negotiation practice covers CTC-structure math.
Straight answers to the questions that actually come up when you're negotiating an offer in India — no generic "know your worth" filler.
Should I share my current CTC when asked?
Avoid it if you reasonably can. Once you've stated a number, most companies anchor their offer to a fixed percentage above it, regardless of what the role is actually worth. Deflect instead: "I'd rather focus on the scope of this role and what's budgeted for it — could you share the range you're working with?" If you're pushed for a number, a market-based range rather than your exact current figure is a reasonable middle ground. It's application forms specifically that put this early and bluntly, so have your deflection ready before you fill one out. Salary negotiation tips for India covers this in more depth.
Is a 20% hike ask realistic?
For most roles switching jobs in the current Indian market, a 20-30% hike is a reasonable reference range, and IT-services-to-IT-services moves often land toward 20-35%. That said, "realistic" depends heavily on your specific move — services to product companies can justify considerably more, sometimes 40-100%, and hot skills like AI/ML, cloud, or security can pull 50-80% in a strong market. These are reference points from how the market has generally behaved, not a script or a promise for your specific case — check them against actual postings and conversations for your role and level before you anchor on a number.
What if HR says the offer is final?
Ask what "final" actually covers before you accept it at face value — sometimes it means the fixed CTC genuinely can't move, but there's still room on joining bonus, notice-period buyout, start date, or appraisal timing. Those are frequently negotiated separately from the base number even after HR has said the fixed figure is locked. If it really is final on everything, you still have a real decision to make about whether the offer as it stands is good enough — "final" is a statement about their flexibility, not an instruction for how you should feel about the number.
Is it rude to negotiate at all?
No. Negotiating a job offer is a completely normal, expected part of Indian hiring, not an imposition. Recruiters budget time for it and are rarely surprised by a reasonable counter. What reads badly isn't negotiating — it's negotiating without a specific, checkable reason behind the ask, or reopening a point that was already agreed and confirmed.
Should I negotiate on CTC or on fixed pay?
Fixed pay, primarily. CTC bundles fixed salary with variable pay, retirals, and sometimes ESOPs or one-time bonuses that inflate the headline number without necessarily increasing what lands in your account monthly. Two offers with identical CTC can differ meaningfully in real take-home. Ask for the full breakup before responding to any number, and negotiate the fixed component specifically wherever you can. How to negotiate a CTC offer walks through this breakdown step by step.
What about a counteroffer from my current company if I try to leave?
Be cautious with it. A large share of people who accept a retention counteroffer end up leaving within six to twelve months anyway, because the reason they started looking rarely gets solved by a bigger number alone. Before accepting, check whether the counter actually addresses why you started interviewing in the first place, or just the pay gap. Counteroffers and retention offers covers this pattern in more detail.
What if the notice period doesn't line up with the new company's start date?
Ask about a notice-period buyout — it's a normal, well-understood term in Indian hiring, not a special favor. The new company may cover it, split it with you, or you may pay it yourself; which one is genuinely negotiable and worth raising early. Notice period buyout and other non-salary terms covers how to raise it and what else is negotiable alongside it.
Does Prepair's negotiation practice cover CTC-structure negotiation?
Partly, and I want to be specific about the boundary rather than let the "salary negotiation" name oversell it. Prepair's salary negotiation practice practices the live spoken (or typed) back-and-forth — an AI recruiter or manager opens with a number, pushes back when you counter, and you work through roughly eight turn-based exchanges before getting a scored breakdown of what you asked for and where you gave up ground. What it does not do is CTC-structure math: it won't break down a breakup sheet into fixed versus variable for you, calculate your real in-hand pay, value an ESOP grant, or compute a notice-period buyout amount. That homework — reading the offer letter, doing the market research, knowing your numbers — is still yours to do first. The tool is for rehearsing the conversation once you already know what you're asking for.
Is Prepair priced in INR?
No, USD only right now — I'd rather say that plainly than have it be a surprise at checkout. If regional pricing becomes viable, it'll be reflected here directly rather than left for a pricing page nobody rereads.
For the fuller mechanics of reading a CTC offer letter and the specific-situation guides — joining bonus, lowball offers, ESOPs, notice period — salary negotiation tips for India is the best starting point, or jump straight into Prepair's salary negotiation practice if you already know what you're asking for and want to rehearse saying it.