CEO compensation is often aligned with global benchmarks and linked to key performance indicators, frequently comprising stock options and long-term incentive plans.
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In FY25, CEOs of India’s top six IT companies were collectively paid about Rs 340 crore, according to disclosures made in their company annual reports.
HCL Tech’s C Vijayakumar received Rs 92 crore in FY25, surpassing the paycheques of all his counterparts. His compensation has more than tripled in two years, from Rs 27.8 crore in FY23. Vijayakumar is based in the USA and draws his salary from HCL America Inc; his salary was computed in Indian rupees using the average dollar exchange rate for the respective financial years.
Infosys CEO Salil Parekh followed, with Rs 81 crore, up 43 percent from Rs 56.5 crore in FY23. LTIMindtree’s former CEO Debashis Chatterjee’s paycheque jump was even sharper: From Rs 17 crore to Rs 32.5 crore; an 87 percent rise in two years.
TCS’ K Krithivasan’s annual compensation rose 4.5 per cent in FY25, from about Rs 25 crore the previous year. Former CEO Rajesh Gopinathan made Rs 29 crore in FY23, before he stepped down.
While former Wipro CEO Thierry Delaporte made over Rs 167 crore in FY24 before his tenure concluded, current CEO Srinivas Pallia’s remuneration in FY25 stood at Rs 54 crore. Similarly, Tech Mahindra’s Mohit Joshi took home Rs 54 crore the same year.
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The analysis considered the annual remuneration of the CEOs as declared in the company annual reports. CEO compensation is often aligned with global benchmarks and linked to key performance indicators, frequently comprising stock options and long-term incentive plans. Analysis shows that performance linked incentives, variable pay and commission account for about 30 percent of the CEOs’ total remuneration.
While this might be a sign of the IT sector gaining momentum, service exports increased by over 12 percent in FY25 compared to the previous year; global trade uncertainty, an economic slowdown, and AI-driven disruptions pose significant headwinds.
A Forbes India analysis also shows that along with this increase in CEO paycheques, the gap between a CEO’s salary and the median remuneration of a company employee has widened in four companies. For instance, at HCL the gap has more than doubled. While the CEO earned 253 times the median remuneration of an employee in FY23, he did so by 663 times in FY25. The Infosys CEO earned more than 750 times the average salary of an employee in FY25. At Tech Mahindra, where median employee remunerations dropped by 6.5 percent in FY25 compared to FY24, the gap exceeded 840 times and was the highest.
Together, these six companies employ almost about 2 million people globally. Meanwhile, TCS has announced it will lay off about 12,000 people or about 2 percent of its workforce this year, the highest such cut for an Indian IT company.
