Former Infosys CFO Mohandas Pai has called out the growing wage disparity in India’s corporate sector, highlighting that fresher salaries have barely increased in over a decade while top executives enjoy substantial raises.
“Look at an IT CEO’s salary five years ago, and look at it now—it has gone up 50-60%. Board compensation has increased by 20%, 30%, even 40%. But for the bottom 20%, wages have only risen by 20-25%,” said Pai, who now serves as Chairman of Aarin Capital.
Using his experience at Infosys, Pai pointed out that freshers who earned Rs 3.25 lakh annually in 2011 are now making only Rs 3.50-3.75 lakh in 2024—a mere 15% increase over 13 years. “How is it justified?” he questioned, adding, “What was the CEO paid in 2011? What is the CEO paid now? It has to be fair.”
This isn’t the first time Pai has raised concerns about fresher exploitation. Earlier, he had stated that the IT industry had been “exploiting freshers for the last ten years” with stagnant compensation levels.
The disparity is even more stark for contract workers, whose wages have increased by just 1-2% over the past five years, according to a Quest study cited by Pai. “There is a great degree of exploitation of the bottom 50%, and India Inc has to really pay them better,” he asserted.
Pai emphasized that while automation has reduced labor requirements in some areas, employers continue to make robust profits. “The percentage of wages to value-added has come down because of automation, and they are not paying more,” he said, urging businesses to focus on fairness, particularly in services and distribution sectors.
