Why Chairman SN Subrahmanyan’s annual pay stands out in publicly-owned L&T 

Why Chairman SN Subrahmanyan’s annual pay stands out in publicly-owned L&T 

Infrastructure giant Larsen & Toubro's (L&T) employee-related expenses, including wages, increments, and benefits, grew at an average annual rate of 11% between FY22 and FY24, according to the company’s annual reports. While these increments outpaced the national inflation rate, which averaged around 6% per year, by approximately five percentage points annually, they were, however, slower than the company’s revenue growth.

The modest salary hikes contrast sharply with L&T's financial performance over the years, much of which has been driven by government public spending contracts in sectors such as ports, highways, and airports.

According to the company’s recent corporate filings, the percentage increase in salaries of employees—excluding managerial personnel—for the group, which employs over 4 lakh people, was 1.74% in FY24. In contrast, managerial remuneration rose by 20.38%, as noted in the company’s FY24 annual report. Additionally, L&T, which follows a six-day work week, also maintains an Embraer ERJ-145 private jet, used by its top management, led by Chairman SN Subrahmanyan.

While the median salary of male L&T employees stood at Rs 9.77 lakh annually and the median salary of female employees stood at Rs 6.76 lakh, Subrahmanyan’s total compensation for FY24 stood at Rs 51.05 crore. His remuneration was 534 times the median pay of an L&T employee. Subrahmanyan and his wife, Meena Subrahmanyan, also received dividends of Rs 80 lakh and Rs 25 lakh, respectively, in FY24 from their shareholding in L&T stock.

In comparison, Subrahmanyan earned Rs 35.67 crore in FY23 and Rs 61.27 crore in FY22. Notably, these figures exclude ESOPs granted during these years.

S.N. Subrahmanyan recently faced criticism after suggesting that employees should work 90 hours a week and even on Sundays to remain competitive. His remarks, made during an internal interaction, surfaced in a video shared on Reddit, sparking widespread backlash and comparisons to similar statements by Infosys founder Narayana Murthy.

In the undated video, Subrahmanyan responded to an employee’s question about mandatory Saturday work, stating, “I regret I am not able to make you work on Sundays, to be honest. If I can make you work on Sundays, I will be more happy because I work on Sundays also.” He added, “What do you do sitting at home? How long can you stare at your wife? How long can the wives stare at their husbands? Get to the office and start working.”

While income disparity between average employee salaries and top management is not new in India—with many promoter CEOs drawing outsized pay packages—Subrahmanyan’s remuneration  may attract attention given L&T’s ownership structure that is led by public investors and the L&T Employee Trust, which holds a 14.36% stake in the company.

L&T is among India’s top corporate earners and belongs to a select group of conglomerates that have seen their cash reserves rise significantly during the post-COVID boom. For the fiscal year 2023–2024, Larsen & Toubro reported a net cash flow of Rs 5,000 crore. According to data from ACE Equities, India Inc's cash reserves have surged by over 51% since the pre-COVID period (FY20), when they stood at approximately Rs 5.06 lakh crore.

Since the controversy, L&T has issued a clarification, stating that the chairman’s remarks were made in the context of the extraordinary efforts required to achieve extraordinary outcomes for the nation.