IN Salaries: CEOS Drive A Hard Bargain

Top executives push for incentive-based options as companies set stiffer targets.

- Rukmini Rao

IN FY24, IT services company Wipro paid former CEO Thierry Delaporte $20.1 million, making him the country’s highest paid professional CEO. After his exit in April, his “terms of employment” entitled him, among other things, to accelerated vesting of 9,89,130 stock options and $4.33 million cash. Nearly three-fourth public shareholders voted against this one-of-its-kind cash compensation in Wipro’s history. While the vote may not have a bearing on the outcome given that the promoters have a vast shareholder majority, it is a live example of hard-bargaining by CEOs to protect their earnings.

Deloitte India’s latest executive performance and rewards survey has found that the average CEO in India was paid ₹13.8 crore in 2024, 40% more than pre-Covid times. It says the number of CEOs earning ₹20 crore-plus has doubled over past four years and more than 50% CEO compensation is now based on short and long-term incentives. For promoter CEOs, fixed pay is now half the total compensation, while for a professional CEO, short and long-term incentives are much higher at 57%. The study shows that as India aims to become the world’s third-largest economy, India Inc. is no longer shying away from duly compensating its top executives. But CEOs increasingly expect fat pay checks.

The Tech Sector