'Increase salaries by half': Techie flags freshers’ pay package at Infosys amid Narayana Murthy’s 'work 70 hours a week' remark

Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy's suggestion for longer working hours to improve the country's work productivity has sparked a fierce debate, with some backing the tech titan while others questioning the stagnation in salary package offered to freshers at the second largest tech firm.

Earlier this week, Murthy said that India's work productivity is one of the lowest in the world and that youngsters should work '70 hours a week' - 14 hours a day in a 5-day week - to make the country number one or two in terms of GDP.

Also read: Narayana Murthy: 'India's work productivity one of the lowest, youngsters should work 12 hours a day'

Reacting to this, a techie said that her first IT salary in 1999 as a fresher was Rs 3.55 lakh per annum after tax or approximately Rs 29K per month. She said she could not believe that Infosys was still paying freshers only Rs 3.72 lakh annually in 2023. "Exploitation is an understatement!"

Mayank Makkar, an investor, said that with time, computing efficiency is much more but then people wanting a job are also much more. "So corollary is that price (wage) ultimately goes south. Efficiency has only helped the top management and shareholders over time. Not the employee masses!"

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Bureaucrat Ashok Khemka also weighed in and shared how CEOs' packages at IT firms shot through the roof but packages for freshers crawled comparatively. In a tweet, he said Infosys CEO's pay was 2,200 times a fresher's pay. "How many hours of work a week does the CEO and a fresher put in respectively? There are only 168 hours in a week."

A techie, however, backed the higher pay for CEOs saying they come with an ocean of experience and expertise. He said while the CEO runs an organisation and brings work for it, fresher gets work from CEO's effort. "A CEO is held responsible for organisation’s failure while a fresher holds no responsibility."

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Khemka responded to him saying the lowest pay in the government (Group D) is 18,000 while the highest pay is 250,000 (Cabinet Secretary), less than 14 times. "Chief Justice of India's pay is 280,000. Companies facing resolution before NCLT and wiping 98% of depositors' money pay in Crores to their CEOs. What sayeth?"

Andre Furtado, who taught Mathematics at Wayne State University from 1974-2019, too did not like the idea of longer working hours to increase productivity. He said Japan has recently moved to 4 days weeks without a drop in productivity. "Mr Murthy, if they are currently working 8 hours a day, then be sure to increase their salary by half, if you demand 12-hour days," Furtado, 81, said.

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Furtado, who did Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan, shared how some US companies like Goldman-Sachs pay well to their employees, but so deeply own their souls that they have absolutely no energy left for their families or even for themselves, once they get home after an 18 hour or more work day. "Most of these hired folks rarely survive as many as three years in that stressful competitive brutal Machiavellian environment, and then go in the very opposite direction for their next career."

Marico founder and chairman Harsh Mariwala too appeared not very convinced with the idea of '70 hours a week' work culture championed by Murthy. He said Undeniably, hard work is the backbone of success, but it is not about the hours clocked in. "It's about the quality and passion one brings to those hours."

"For our youth to be truly engaged and motivated, we need to ensure they are placed in roles that not only challenge them but also foster growth and learning. When an individual sees a path where hard work translates to a promising future, they are naturally inclined to give their best."

Entrepreneur and film producer Ronnie Screwvala said boosting productivity isn't just about working longer hours, it's about getting better at what one does - "upskilling, having a positive work environment and fair pay for the work done". "Quality of work done > clocking in more hours."