Million Dollar Pay Club in India Grows

Bangalore: India’s million dollar salary club witnessed a rise this year as more and more professional CEOs from the elite group marked their presence.  Talking about the financial year 2011-2012, 101 Indian CEOs entered the million dollar club, compared to 99 last year. This signifies the moderation in salary being doled out to senior executives across India Inc. Around 75 percent of these executives received a hike in their compensation and the salaries of head honchos saw a rise of 7.2 percent from last year. Though there are not many new names in the list, the members who already existed in the list saw a rise in their salaries in spite of lethargic economy.

Considerably, the share of professional CEOs in the million-dollar club went up once again, indicating the altering power structures across India Inc. TOI revealed through a commissioned study conducted by global executive search firm EMA Partners that more companies are hiring professionals for the top job, the promoter to professional ratio now stands at 3:2. The study takes into account 4.5 crore as the benchmark to calculate a million dollars despite the depreciating rupee, in order to make a fair comparison with last year,. The depreciating rupee dealt a hard gust to a lot of sectors and if the current exchange rate was used as a reference point then only about 75 CEOs would have made it to the million-dollar CEO club. The manufacturing was still the leader of the pack, in spite of a minor fall in share, when it came to the sectoral representation in the million dollar club, revealed the EMA Partners' study, which took into account only publicly listed firms.

Following the trend over the last few years, professional CEOs established their importance as now they collectively hold 40 percent share in the million dollar club, another percentage point jump from last year. Promoter CEOs still rule the perch with 60 percent share, the study revealed. K Sudarshan, Managing Partner, India, EMA Partners International, said, "Even if you look at large promoter-run groups, professionals have started featuring in the million dollar salary list which speaks volumes of the changes happening across corporate India.”

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