Nearly half of India Inc top bosses earn over 100 times their staff pay

India Inc’s corner-office paycheques are getting bigger, and increasingly detached from what the broader workforce earns. As companies grow in scale and complexity, competition for experienced leaders and a shift towards performance-linked compensation are pushing executive remuneration higher, experts said.

But the widening gap between boardroom payouts and employee wage growth is raising questions about how corporate gains are being distributed.

A Mint analysis found that nearly 45% of executive heads across 232 BSE 500 companies earned more than 100 times their company’s median employee remuneration in FY26, up from nearly 40% in FY20. Majority of them have been earning at least 80 times the median employee remuneration since FY24. The study is based on comparable data from annual reports between FY20 and FY26.

The concentration of wealth at the top is also reflected in the changing compensation pyramid. Nearly 7% of board room members earned ₹10 crore or more in FY26, more than double the roughly 3% recorded in FY20. Meanwhile, the bottom rung–directors earning under ₹1 crore came down to nearly 70% from 76% six years earlier.

The talent premium

The rise in executive pay reflects a combination of strong corporate growth, increasing business complexity and a limited supply of leaders capable of managing large organisations, said Anandorup Ghose, managing director of upGrad Next.

Reflecting this expansion, BSE 500 companies saw their aggregate revenues match the index’s more-than-threefold growth over the past decade, data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy shows. As businesses expanded their global presence and integrated digital and traditional operations, the demands on their leadership also increased, Ghose added.

“Companies also compete for a relatively small pool of proven CEO talent,” said Mala Chawla, managing director at Stanton Chase India and Singapore, adding that the supply-demand mismatch has further pushed up executive compensation.

Corporate leaders now also shoulder growing responsibilities across digital transformation, artificial intelligence-led restructuring, cybersecurity, regulatory compliance and environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks, warranting higher compensation, noted Madan Mohan Kunnathele, an independent board advisor. Global benchmarking practices have also pushed pay levels higher compared to historical domestic standards, he added.

However, the shift is not just towards higher fixed salaries. Executive pay has increasingly moved towards variable payouts linked to annual performance and long-term incentives, Ghose said. Until around 2010, fixed pay accounted for 70-80% of Indian CXO compensation, with limited long-term incentives. Today, variable pay makes up at least 60% of professional CEOs’ compensation at larger companies, split almost equally between annual and long-term incentives, he added.

The contrast with the US is sharper, where long-term incentives accounted for over 70% of CEO compensation in 2025, according to a Willis Towers Watson analysis of more than 500 companies across Japan, France, Germany, the UK and the US.

A widening divide

The growing tilt towards performance-linked compensation has widened the gap between executive pay and regular employee wages. Mint’s analysis shows that director remuneration has broadly tracked corporate earnings over the past three years, even outpacing profit growth in FY26.

Director compensation rose 38% year-on-year, against a 22% increase in aggregate net profit among BSE 500 companies. In contrast, employee compensation, excluding executive directors’ remuneration, grew by just 1% last fiscal year.

Chawla attributed the divergence to the sheer cost of broad-based pay hikes. Even modest increments across thousands of employees can substantially inflate companies’ costs, prompting them to prioritise higher compensation for a smaller pool of critical leadership talent, she said.

Automation and productivity gains have also reduced the need for broad-based wage increases, while variable-pay structures allow executive earnings to outpace regular salary increments, Kunnathele noted. The widening gap, however, can affect employee morale and perceptions of fairness, particularly when the broader workforce sees limited salary growth despite rising corporate profitability, Kunnathele cautioned.

Pay disparities also vary by ownership structure. Family-run businesses tend to have wider gaps between senior and middle management, sometimes extending to the broader workforce. These are generally less pronounced in professionally managed companies, particularly multinationals, he added.

Under greater scrutiny

Rising executive pay is also drawing closer shareholder scrutiny. Proxy advisory firms and institutional investors are increasingly questioning compensation decisions, pushing nomination and remuneration committees (NRCs) and boards to exercise greater care over the quantum and structure of payouts, Ghose of upGrad Next said. Long-term incentive awards, in particular, face greater scrutiny over transparency and payout criteria, he added.

This pressure could intensify as geopolitical uncertainty and AI-led disruption push companies to contain costs. Executive pay growth may moderate going forward if economic expansion slows and investors demand greater discipline, Kunnathele said.

Boards risk criticism if generous executive rewards coincide with cost cuts without delivering sustainable business gains, said Chawla of Stanton Chase. Incentives should therefore extend beyond financial performance to include metrics such as employee retention, customer satisfaction and cybersecurity, she said.

Mayur Bhalerao and Rushi Gupta also contributed to this story.

This is the final part of a three-part data series based on annual reports. The first part examined how long India Inc.’s corner-office leaders stay at the helm while the second part looked at shifting workforce dynamics of Indian companies.