Mkt regulator salary in India dwarfs in comparison to US peers

When it comes to powers enjoyed by capital market regulators, they may be equivalent in India and the US, but there appears to be a huge gap in their salaries.

The government recently hiked the monthly salary of chairman of Securities Exchange Board of India (Sebi), which regulates Indian capital markets, to Rs 4.5 lakh which translates into an annual pay of Rs 54 lakh.

In comparison, more than 100 officers of the US capital markets regulator, the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), earn USD 225,000 (about Rs 1.4 crore) or more a year.

The total staff strength of the SEC exceeds 3,500 persons, while the Sebi has close to 700 employees.

According to a government notification, dated December 30, 2013, Sebi chairman's monthly consolidated salary was increased to Rs 4.50 lakh, excluding house and car perks.

Earlier while inviting applications for Sebi Chairman's post in late 2010, the government had said the selected person would get a monthly salary of Rs 3 lakh.

However, there is one common trend for India and the US -- that is the regulator salaries being way below the pay packages given to CEOs of the companies they regulate.

While the US has an average CEO salary of Rs 11.5 crore, the same for Indian CEOs stand at about Rs 6.3 crore, as per a study conducted by HR services provider Randstad India. The average CEO salary in Europe is Rs 8.1 crore.

The study also revealed that private sector CEOs in India are compensated 21 times more than their public enterprise counterparts with the latter's average compensation pegged at around Rs 0.3 crore.

In the case of salaries of public sector CEOs, benefits and perquisites provided to them by the companies were not included.