Salil Parekh of Infosys is the second-highest paid chief executive officer (CEO) of an information technology company in India in FY24 at Rs 66.25 crore, according to remuneration data compiled from annual reports.
Parekh’s salary was next only to Wipro’s former CEO Thierry Delaporte, who earned $20 million (about Rs 166 crore).
Parekh’s FY23 compensation had declined to Rs 56 crore from Rs 71 crore in FY22.
The increase in FY24 was primarily because Parekh exercised higher restricted stock units (RSUs) during the year, the Bengaluru-based IT service company’s annual report showed. Restricted stock units are a form of equity compensation offered to employees.
Infosys offers RSUs based on two plans. In its 2015 plan, the stocks are vested largely based on time, and in the 2019 plan, the benefit is based on performance indicators, including total shareholder returns and the company’s operating metrics.
Parekh's remuneration comprises fixed pay, variable pay, retiral benefits, and the perquisite value of stock incentives exercised during the period.
Salary split
Of the Rs 66.25 crore compensation, Parekh earned Rs 39.03 crore by exercising his RSUs. In FY24, Parekh earned Rs 7 crore in base pay and Rs 47 lakh as retiral benefits. His variable pay went up to Rs 19.75 crore in FY24 from Rs 12.62 crore in FY23.
Parekh made 677 times the median remuneration — Rs 9.77 lakh — of the company’s employees. This comes when Infosys changed its hiring model, and the IT sector faces increased uncertainty.
In his letter to shareholders, Parekh said relentless focus on execution enabled the company to deliver growth and operating margin resilience.
“We worked closely with our clients on their cost, efficiency,
automation, and consolidation programs to generate $17.7 billion of large deals, the highest we have had annually, which showcases the relevance of our service offerings for clients,” he said.
Parekh added that the company recruited nearly 11,900 college graduates in the year and ended the year with over 3,17,000 employees. Infosys trained over 2,50,000 employees on Artificial Intelligence (AI) skills.
Also read: We hire more than half of our freshers off campus: Infosys CFO
Rivals' remuneration
Infosys rival Wipro’s former CEO Delaporte drew over $20 million (approximately Rs 166 crore) in FY24. The pay included a severance-related package of Rs 92.1 crore for Delaporte, who resigned on April 6. Delaporte’s successor Srinivas Pallia will receive remuneration of about Rs 50 crore in FY25.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) CEO and MD K Krithivasan drew Rs 25.36 crore in annual compensation in the financial year 2023-24, which is the lowest amongst the large IT companies.
The next-best paid CEO of an IT company was C Vijayakumar of HCL Technologies, who earned Rs 28.4 crore in FY23. LTIMindtree paid CEO Debashis Chatterjee, who was appointed in November 2022 after the merger of L&T and Mindtree, got Rs 17.5 crore in FY23.
Tech Mahindra’s Mohit Joshi received an annual fixed compensation of Rs 6.5 crore and an equal amount in annual variable pay. Tata Consultancy Services CEO and MD K Krithivasan drew Rs 25.36 crore in compensation in FY24, the lowest among large IT companies.
Also read: Average Indian CEO pay reaches around Rs 14 crore per year, up 40% from pre-pandemic level
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