C Vijayakumar, one of highest paid Indian CEOs, sees salary drop by over Rs 100 crore

HCLTech’s CEO C Vijayakumar earned Rs 28.4 crore ($3.46 million) in the fiscal year 2023, makes him the least-paid CEO among the top five IT companies in India. In comparison, Vijayakumar received Rs 130 crore ($16.52 million) last year, making him the highest-paid person. According to HCLTech's annual report for FY23, his pay has decreased by 79.05 percent over the previous year.

According to the annual report, the decrease in remuneration was brought on by the absence of long-term incentives, or LTI, which are paid out every two years upon "achievement of milestones or parameters decided by the board". Vijayakumar made $12.50 million in LTI in FY22. At the conclusion of FY24, he will get the LTI for FY22 and FY23.

Vijayakumar made $3.46 million in total compensation in FY23, including $2 million in base pay (Rs 16.44 crore), $1.43 million in performance-linked bonus (Rs 11.8 crore), and $0.03 million in benefits, perquisites, and allowances.

Nevertheless, the CEO's income was 253.35 times higher than HCL Tech's median salary in FY23. As of March 31, the IT company employed 2,25,944 people worldwide across 210 delivery locations in 60 different countries.

In contrast to Vijayakumar, Rajesh Gopinathan, the former CEO of Tata Consultancy Services, earned Rs 29.16 crore in FY23; CP Gurnani, the CEO of Tech Mahindra, got Rs 32 crore; Salil Parekh, the CEO of Infosys, received Rs 56.44 crore; and Thierry Delaporte, the CEO of Wipro, earned Rs 82.4 crore.

With the exception of Gopinathan, everyone else's pay has decreased in FY23. Mohit Joshi, the new CEO of Tech Mahindra, will make at least Rs 13 crore in fixed and variable compensation in his first year, Rs 7 crore in joining bonus, $2.5 million in one-time stock grant, and $3.5 million in yearly stock option grant.