Former TCS CEO Rajesh Gopinathan’s Salary Saw Muted Growth In FY23

Rajesh Gopinathan's salary grew by a modest 13.17% in his final year as the chief executive officer of Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. That was still 427 times the median pay of employees at one of India's largest IT services firm.

The former CEO drew a total compensation of Rs 29.16 crore in the fiscal ended March 31, as against Rs 25.75 crore in the previous financial year, according to TCS' annual report released on Wednesday. In comparison, an employee at the firm earned a median salary of Rs 6.82 lakh.

To be sure, Gopinathan drew the lowest salary among peers at India's Top four information technology firms. Infosys Ltd.'s CEO Salil Parekh's salary dropped by a fifth over the previous fiscal to Rs 56.44 crore in FY23, even as that of Wipro Ltd. CEO Thierry Delaporte remained largely stagnant at $10 million (about Rs 82 crore), according to annual reports. HCL Technologies Ltd. and Tech Mahindra Ltd. are yet to release their annual reports, but their CEOs C. Vijayakumar and CP Gurnani earned Rs 123.13 crore and Rs 71.02 crore, respectively, in FY22.

TCS didn't quantify the pay package that its new CEO Krithi Krithivasan will draw, except that he'll earn a basic salary of Rs 10 lakh per month, and up to a maximum of Rs 16 lakh per month. The CEO compensation includes a commission that's linked to the profitability of a company in a financial year.

As on March 31, TCS had a total headcount of 614,795, with net additions of 22,600 employees. As a result, the company's attrition rate stood at 20.1% on a trailing 12-month basis. At 2,20,000, women made up a third of the employee base, with a majority of them in middle and senior management.

“In FY2023, we focused on utilising the spare capacity built up in the prior year, and recalibrated our hiring, especially as attrition started falling in the second half of the year,” Gopinathan said in his final letter to shareholders.

“With enterprises relying on technology ever more, to drive their competitive differentiation, technology intensity is rising and on a secular basis, the share of IT services within overall tech spending is also going up. I'm confident that TCS' best years are ahead, and I look forward to watching the company's continued success from outside," he said.