India, March 19 -- A senior female technical lead in the data and AI sector recently shared her experience of receiving a meager 3% salary hike despite years of loyalty and high performance. The professional, who earns over Rs.50 lakh, highlighted a growing "loyalty tax" where long-term employees are overlooked for market-standard corrections. Her Reddit post has sparked a conversation about how "we'll take care of you" promises by corporates often fail to materialise into actual compensation.

"I stayed loyal for years. A 3 percent hike made me realize what was really going on," the employee wrote.

Explaining the situation, she added, "I'm a senior technical lead working in the data/AI space at a product company. Over the past couple of...