According to a recent study, median employee remuneration of several private Indian firms fell or remained the same during fiscal 2017, while the top executives took home salary packages that are 1,200 times more. It revealed a huge pay gap between the CEOs of the blue-chip Indian firms and its employees. The top executives take home salary packages that are 1,200 times more than their median employee remunerations. An analysis of remuneration disclosures made by top listed companies that are a part of the blue-chip index Sensex – under directions of the capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), shows that the pay packages of the top most personnel such as the CEOs and Executive Chairmen continue to remain high and rose further in most private sector firms during 2016-17.
Surprisingly, the study also revealed that the median employee remuneration of many private Indian companies fell or remained almost the same during the FY 2017. It also said that in most cases the ratio of the top executive’s pay to the median employee remuneration remained at astronomically high levels – hundreds of times more than the latter. On the other hand, public sector companies have a completely different story to tell. The salaries of the chiefs are just three to four times more than the median employee remuneration. One of the public sector firms that indeed needs to be spoken of is India’s largest bank— State Bank of India. Another private blue chip company that also contradicts the analysis of the study is Infosys. The top executives of private companies engage in taking pay cuts and training their employees to limit job losses. It is possible to protect jobs of youngsters if seniors make minor adjustments, like senior people taking salary cuts based on disposable income.
