Infosys Vishal Sikka's salary falls in FY17, bonus declines 81% to $8.22 lakh

Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka’s salary, a source of dissatisfaction for the founder members, has declined in 2016-17, according to the company’s annual report for the year. The decline in the cash component of his salary was a huge 67 percent to Rs 12 crore while his total compensation fell just 7 percent to Rs 45.11 crore from Rs 48.41 crore in 2015-16. [caption id=“attachment_3475762” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka. Reuters[/caption] The cash component includes base salary and bonus payment, while total compensation includes stocks granted and retiral benefits. Sikka’s base salary, which is part of the cash compenent, has risen to $1 million from $900,000 but his bonus and incentives have sharply fallen to just $822,389 from $4.3 million, an 81 percent decline. According to a annual report, while the total compensation of Sikka has fallen other senior executives witnssed a rise. Chief operating officer U B Pravin Rao’s total salary increased to Rs 11.80 crore in FY17 from Rs 8.14 crore in the previous year. Likewise, compensation of deputy chief operating officer, Ravi Kumar S, went up to Rs 14.87 crore from Rs 8.27 crore. The variable components across the board has been lower due to the difficult business environment. The management has, in fact, increased the performance-based stock incentives for the senior executives. “It has been my personal endeavor since joining Infosys to enable all employees to share in the successes of the company, and in fiscal 2017, we made the first step of this a reality. In addition, we restructured the compensation of senior leaders to be more performance-based, with a significant portion of their compensation now coming through stock incentives, creating a more direct alignment with the interest shareholders,” Sikka said in the letter to stakeholders. Sikka’s salary was revised from $7.08 million to a $11 million package with effect from April 2016, a move that did not go down well with the founders, including NR Narayana Murthy. The $11 million package was to include a base salary of $1 million and $2 million worth of stock annually as well $3 million in variable pay. Sikka is also eligible for another $5 million worth of performance-based equity and stock options upon achievement of certain performance targets. (Data contributed by Kishor Kadam)