Nearly half of India Inc top bosses earn over 100 times their staff pay
The gap between India Inc’s corner office payouts and average staff salaries widened sharply over the past six years. Around 45% of BSE 500 executive heads earned over 100 times their median staff pay in FY26.
India's top corporate executives are earning nearly 100 times the median pay of their company's rank-and-file employees, according to a Mint analysis. In the fiscal year 2026, 45% of executive heads across 232 BSE 500 companies had salaries more than 100 times their median employee remuneration, a rise from nearly 40% in 2020. The study, based on annual reports from 2020 to 2026, indicates that the concentration of wealth at the top is growing.
Nearly 7% of board members earned ₹10 crore or more in 2026, more than double the 3% recorded in 2020. Conversely, the number of directors earning under ₹1 crore dropped to nearly 70% from 76% six years earlier. Anandorup Ghose, managing director of upGrad Next, attributes the rise to strong corporate growth, increasing business complexity, and a limited supply of experienced leaders.
Companies are also competing for a small pool of proven CEO talent, driving up compensation. The shift towards variable pay linked to performance and long-term incentives has further widened the gap between executive and employee wages. While fixed pay accounted for 70-80% of Indian CXO compensation until around 2010, it now makes up at least 60% of professional CEOs' compensation at larger companies.
The growing trend has also drawn closer shareholder scrutiny, prompting boards to exercise greater caution over compensation decisions.
Written by urgent.news from Live Mint's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
