Produced by: Aakanksha Chaturvedi
Designed by: Manoj Kumar
The compensation of CEOs of major Indian IT companies like HCLTech, Infosys, and Wipro has experienced a substantial decline in FY2022-23 as compared to payouts of FY2021-22 amid global macro headwinds. This information has been gathered from the annual reports of these companies.
This trend of reduced CEO compensation was not isolated to one company but was seen across the entire Indian IT industry in FY23. Experts note that this is due to cutbacks on commission, headwinds in the sector, difference in variable pay as compared to previous years, global interest rates being at multi-year high.
C Vijayakumar, CEO of HCLTech, saw an astonishing 80% drop in his compensation in FY23 on an annual basis. In FY22, he was one of the highest-paid Indian CEOs with an annual compensation of Rs 130 crore, but in FY23, his earnings amounted to only around Rs 30 crore.
CP Gurnani, CEO of Tech Mahindra, witnessed a 50% YoY drop in his annual compensation for FY23. His compensation in FY23 amounted to Rs 32 crore as compared to Rs 64 crore in FY22.
Infosys CEO Salil Parekh also experienced significant cuts in his annual compensation. In FY23, he earned around Rs 56.4 crore, which was approximately 20% lower than his compensation in FY22, which stood at around Rs 71 crore.
Wipro CEO, Thierry Delaporte, saw a 5% decrease in his annual compensation to Rs 82 crore from Rs 86 crore in FY23. Among Indian IT players, Thierry Delaporte stands as the highest-paid CEO based on information from major IT companies' annual reports.
The cuts were more pronounced in Wipro chairperson Rishad Premji's annual compensation, which declined by 50%. Wipro's annual report stated, "No commission was payable for fiscal year 2023 to Mr. Rishad A Premji."
There is a wide chasm when it comes to CEO pay compared to the median compensation at these companies. Delaporte makes 916.12 times the median compensation at Wipro. Parekh earns 627 times more, Gurnani makes 466.99 times more, and Vijayakumar earns 253.35 times more than the median compensation at their respective companies.
The trend of cutbacks in pay of IT industry CEOs reflects the challenges being faced by the sector. The IT demand has subdued amid slowdown in clients' tech spending.