No vulgar or outrageous salaries to CEO, COO, says Infosys

Keen on setting an example in tough times, Infosys Technologies board member T V Mohandas Pai today said the board members had taken the "deepest cut" in variable components of their salaries.

Reacting to questions on comments on 'vulgar' or outrageous salaries paid to IT honchos, made by Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Kurshid, he told media during the release of quarterly results today "We don't have an issue here. We pay our CEO, COO much less than other members of the board".

As per a decision arrived five year ago, it was decided that those who are founding members and share holders should be paid less than those who are not, he said.

"So we have CEO and COO, who come under this category, get less than other members of the board and senior members of this company".

He said 50 percent of the compensation of the top officials was tied to performance, both top line and bottom line.

"I think when we are working on this (austerity), we can hardly say that we (will) shut our eyes on what salary the CEOs are going to take," Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid had said when asked how the government intends to control salaries of CEOs which at times appear vulgar.

During slackened environment, the board members took the deepest cut in variables much more than other executive council members and those with titles. The cut was prompted by "leading by example" and "walking the talk" rather than just leaving others to feel the pain of salary cuts.

"After things went down during the last three or four quarters we took deep cut in our variables, much more than the rest of the company. The board took the deepest cut followed by members of executive council, shareholders and then rest of Infosys", Pai said.