Number of crorepati employees at ITC, HUL, United Spirits up nearly 25% YoY

The number of people earning Rs 1 crore or more in annual salaries in three companies — Hindustan Unilever, ITC, and United Spirits — increased by a quarter to almost 500 people in 2022-23.

As per their latest annual reports, at ITC, the number of crorepati employees jumped by 36 per cent year-on-year to 257 in FY23 from 189 in the previous year. In HUL, 205 managers earned more than Rs 1 crore in annual salary in FY23, up 25 per cent from 163 in FY22, according to a report in The Economic Times (ET).

In the country's largest alcobev firm United Spirit, 34 managers were in the Rs 1-crore-plus bracket last fiscal.

These three companies passed on a double-digit hike to their top leadership last year.

In ITC, the package of key management personnel went up by 28 per cent last fiscal, which it attributed to the impact of revision in remuneration and payment of long-term incentives during the year. In contrast, the average remuneration of all employees increased by 6 per cent. At USL, the key managerial average remuneration increased by 43 per cent in FY23. The change in the average remuneration of employees other than the key managerial personnel was 6.9 per cent, according to the ET report.

For HUL, the percentage increase in the median remuneration of employees in FY23 was 10.7 per cent, while the average increase in the salaries of employees other than the managerial personnel was 8 per cent.

Shiv Agrawal, managing director of executive search firm ABC Consultants, said that there was a hiring boom last year.

"What remains to be seen is how much the number of employees earning crore-plus in these companies will go up this fiscal when hiring has slowed down and there is an overall slowdown," he said.

In FY23, HUL sales grew 16per cent to Rs 58,154 crore, while net profit rose by 13 per cent to Rs 9,962 crore. For ITC, revenue went up by 17 per cent to Rs 70,251 crore last fiscal, while net profit surged by 24 per cent to Rs 18,753 crore.