India

Executive Compensation: The Year of Cautious Optimism


The above chart represents compensation paid to CEOs across different revenue groups. The compensation remains fairly inelastic in the first two revenue ranges of `0-5 billion and `5-10 billion. Also, it is interesting to note that at higher revenue ranges representing larger organizations, the difference in pay is attributable more to higher short-term incentives and long-term incentives comparedto fixed compensation. We see a much better progression on total compensation as we move above the revenue range `10 billion. This shows that the co-relation is improving especially for large organizations. The regulatory disclosures required by the Companies Act, 2013 will force the remuneration committees to have a more structured approach towards determining CEO compensation which should improve these correlation numbers further in the coming years.



The above chart represents the compensation paid to CXOs across different revenue groups. We see that there is some bit of clustering in the data patterns. Up to `10 billion the total compensation at CXO level seems to be quite inelastic in nature. At the next tier, we see that while the fixed compensation broadly remains at similar levels, the total pay is much higher on account of differentiation created through short-term incentives and long-term pay. We can call this the first inflection point. At `35-50 billion revenue range, the total pay at average level increases by approximately 33%. We again see the clustering till `100-300 billion revenue range where CXO pay remains inelastic to a large extent. Beyond this level, again there is a quantum jump in the level of compensation and the same increases by approximately 36% for revenue range greater than `300 billion.

2. Analysis Basis Industry
The below graph represents the compensation paid to chief executives in India across different industries – while on an average there is parity at the total compensation levels, it is important to note that the financial services does not include the compensation data of banking CEOs which are very aggressive on long-term incentives. It is interesting to see that while on fixed pay there is parity across different industry clusters, the financial services are at a much lower level. However, if we look at the quantum of short-term incentives, it is much higher in financial services compared to other industry clusters. Manufacturing sector lags the pack with the lowest amount of pay linked to short-term or long-term goals.



The following graph represents compensation paid to CXOs across different industry clusters. Evidently, there is not much differential in the compensation level across different industry groups. The primary reason for that is functional talent is getting much more mobile across industry sectors.



3. Analysis by Ownership Type The below graph represents the compensation paid to chief executives in India across different ownership types -

It is evident that the "Pay at Risk" is highest in financial services followed by services and FMCG/pharma

Page:

Home

Follow us on: Aon India on LinkedIn Aon India on Twitter

Cover Story