Infosys' Salil Parekh is now the top paid Indian IT CEO at $6.15 million, even as his peers at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Wipro have taken a more conservative stand when it comes to executive remuneration given the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, pandemic.
Most of Infosys’ top executives saw hikes of over 20 percent in FY21.
CEO Salil Parekh raked in $6.15 million in FY20, up 27 percent, compared to last year, according to the US Securities and Exchanges Commission filing. This includes $801,264 in salary, $1.54 million in bonus and incentives, $53,425 in long-term benefits and $3.7 million in restricted stock units (RSUs). He is the most paid CEO so far compared to his peers. For FY19 period, his remuneration was $4.8 million.
UB Pravin Rao, COO, Infosys, remuneration jumped to $2.3 million in FY20 from $1.78 million in FY19. His remuneration includes salary, bonuses and incentives and RSUs valued at $1.1 million for the year ending March 31.
In FY19, HCL Technologies’ CEO C Vijayakumar was the highest paid CEO in FY19 at $4 million (Rs 27.92 crore), followed by Abidali Neemuchwala at $3.95 million ($27.32 million).
Executive pay at TCS, Wipro reducesTCS CEO Rajesh Gopinathan’s salary fell 16 percent to Rs 13.37 crore.
In the annual report, the company said, “The remuneration for FY20 is lower than FY19 in view of the economic conditions due to COVID-19. The directors have decided to moderate the executive remuneration for this year to express solidarity and conserve resources.”
While the salary of Wipro's outgoing CEO Abidali Neemuchwala increased 12 percent to $4.42 million, others declined. For instance, CFO Jatin Dalal’s salary fell 33 percent to $590,015 in FY20 compared to last year.
Both Azim Premji and Chairman Rishad Premji decided to forego profit-linked commission and variable pay (only for Rishad) for FY20 due to COVID-19. In FY19, the largest component of their salary came from commissions. It accounted for about $131,231 for Azim and $697,531 for Rishad. Azim and Rishad drew $135,772 and $683,496, respectively, for FY20.
Uncertainty around COVID-19Infosys' hike comes at a time when all firms have suspended wage hikes and promotions for their employees. In a recent regulatory filings, both Wipro and Infosys pointed out that COVID-19 is likely to impact profitability and revenue as they see cancellations and ramp down of existing projects. Pricing pressure and cut down in client spending are expected as well.
At this juncture, the 27 percent hike to their CEO did not go down well with employees. One of the IT employees said it is unfair given that they are cutting down salaries of junior employees even as the company is paying a huge sum to executives. A Times of India report indicated that job cuts could be in the offing too as the company is looking at restructuring mid and senior executive roles and that could impact 1,300 people.
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