Salaries in the information technology sector went up by an average of 19 per cent in 2004 with senior level professionals gaining the most, according to Dataquest-IDC survey.

The survey revealed that Hewlett-Packard, India was the top paymaster among Indian IT companies, followed by Cadence and Philips. It found that salaries of IT professionals with over 10 years experience increased by 26 per cent to an average Rs 12.4 lakh (Rs 1.24 million).

Salaries of those with 5-10 years experience went up 24 per cent during 2004 to Rs 670,000, while in the 2-5 years category salaries went up by 11 per cent to Rs 420,000. However, salaries of freshers in the industry registered a significant 12 per cent drop to Rs 260,000.

The survey also found that despite emerging as the highest paymaster, H-P scored low on employee satisfaction.

While Cadence topped in terms of satisfaction, Philips stood second while H-P ranked eighth. Sasken, which stood fourth among highest paymasters, was ranked sixth as far as employee satisfaction was concerned.

"Money is not the main motivator any more. Companies that are good paymasters have a large chunk of employees dissatisfied, and even dissatisfied with their salaries, and this is a rising trend that we have observed for a few years," Dataquest group president Prasanto K Roy said in a release.

The salary survey, which was conducted across 1,010 employees representing hardware, software and services firms, also revealed that IT companies extended perks and benefits to a larger base of employees in 2004 as opposed to 2003.