Despite a season of muted corporate earnings, Rishad Premji, Chief strategy officer and a director on the Wipro board were handed the highest salary in percentage terms for the last fiscal. Rishad's remuneration rose by 250% to Rs. 5.9 crore. The company's annual report also shows that Saurabh Govil, president and chief HRO, also saw his salary soar by 136% to Rs 6.6 crore.
Meanwhile, its CEO Abidali Neemuchwala, who gets his salary in US dollars, got an equivalent of Rs 6.3 crores in gross salary, Rs 1.7 crore in variable pay, Rs 10.2 crore in other annual compensation, including other various perks taking his total compensation to Rs 18.2 crore, up 35%.
"Computation of remuneration to CEO and executive director is on an accrual basis and includes amortisation of ADS restricted stock units (RSUs) granted to him, which vests over a period a time. This also includes RSUs that vest based on performance parameters of the company," the report said.
Rishad got Rs. 93.3 lakh in salary, Rs 53.5 lakh in allowances and Rs 4.1 crore under commission/incentives/variable pay, along with other perks. Remuneration includes salary, allowances, commission, performance-based payments, perquisites and company's contribution to provident fund and superannuation. It also includes the value of restricted stock units (RSUs) exercised, if any, by employees.
The hike in the remuneration to the top management of the company comes at a time when average salary hike for Wipro this year was about 6-7% and even the top performers received a salary in double digits percentage wise. On the other hand, Azim Premji got a 10% raise to 87 lakh in his remuneration. In his letter to shareholders, the czar of the Indian IT industry said in the current dynamic environment, people are often trapped by "false choices."
It is also interesting to note that the hikes come at a time when Wipro has sacked a large number of employees in last fiscal year and has been dealing with growth issues after the bankruptcy of two clients. In FY 18, Wipro reported a 4.9% growth in revenue, lower than its competitors Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys and HCL Technologies.
