India’s widespread wage inequality: As startups like Infosys lament low salaries for freshers, CEO Mohandas Pai highlights the stark contrast between entry-level wages and the exorbitant compensation packages received by top directors.

T.V. Mohandas Pai, a former director and head of HR at Infosys, has spoken about the issue of wage disparity in India. He points out that while CEOs’ salaries have increased by 50-60% over the past 5 years, freshers and lower-level employees have not seen commensurate growth. For example, freshers’ salaries have only risen by 15% over 13 years, while CEOs’ salaries have increased by several multiples. Pai questions how this disparity can be justified, particularly when contraction employees have even seen smaller increases of 1-2% in the past 5 years, leaving them near the minimum wage. He suggests that the country’s top 50% is exploiting the bottom 50%, and that companies must pay their employees better. Pai also proposes linking compensation to employee performance and raising the minimum wage in the service sector. His views echo those of a study by V Anantha Nageswaran, which found that while corporate profits have increased, employee wages have not kept pace.