A recent study has revealed a huge pay gap between the CEOs of the blue-chip Indian firms and its employees. The top executives take home salary packages that are 1,200 times more than their median employee remunerations.
Thought only Infosys had crorepati executives? You haven't seen TCS' list yet
The Economic Times has reported that the analysis of remuneration disclosures made by top listed companies forming part of the blue-chip index Sensex – under directions of the capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), shows that the pay packages of the top most personnel like the CEOs and executive chairmen continue to remain high and rose further at most private sector firms during 2016-17.
Such vast pay gaps can rankle many IT employees, especially those who have been laid off in the name of work force rationalisation as CEOs and top executives earn crores of rupees.
Surprisingly, the study has revealed that the median employee remuneration of many private Indian companies fell or remained almost the same during the financial year (FY) 2017.
It also said that in most cases the ratio of the top executive's pay to the median employee remuneration remained at astronomically high levels – hundreds of times more than the latter.
On the other hand, the public sector companies have a completely different tale. The salaries of the chiefs are just three to four times more than the median employee remuneration.
One of the public sector firms that indeed needs to be boasted about is India's largest bank— State Bank of India. SBI chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya took home Rs 28.96 lakh last fiscal, which though sounds to be a big amount, is in fact extremely low when compared with the remuneration of the heads of private banks.
Another private blue chip company that also contradicts the analysis of the study is Infosys. The top executives of this company engage in taking pay cuts and training their employees to limit job losses.
"It is possible to protect jobs of youngsters if seniors make minor adjustments, like senior people taking salary cuts based on disposable income," said Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy.
Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka's salary this FY fell to Rs 16.01 crore from Rs 48.73 crore in FY2016.
Meanwhile, Wipro chairman Azim Premji took home $121,853 (about Rs 79 lakh) as salary in FY2017, which is about 63 percent lesser than what he earned in FY16.
India's fifth largest IT giant Tech Mahindra's CEO CP Gurnani received quite a huge hike in his package this year. While his pay was Rs 2.37 crore in FY2016, he took home Rs 3.65 crore this year, which is a 54 percent jump.
