HCLTech CEO and Managing Director C Vijayakumar earned $18.13 million, about ₹174.86 crore, in FY26, a 67% jump from the previous year, making him the highest-paid chief executive among India’s IT services companies.
The steep rise stands out against a broader IT sector where executive pay hikes have stayed muted through FY26, as companies weigh AI-driven margin pressure and cautious client spending against retention needs. Vijayakumar’s pay comfortably outpaced peers: TCS CEO K Krithivasan’s remuneration rose 6% to ₹28.1 crore, Infosys CEO Salil Parekh earned ₹82.6 crore, and Wipro CEO Srini Pallia’s total compensation actually fell 15.75% to $5.29 million.
The ratio of Vijayakumar’s salary to the median employee remuneration at HCLTech came in at 291.9 this year, down from 662.5 a year earlier, according to the company’s annual report. Vijayakumar, who has led HCLTech as CEO since 2016, is based in the US and draws his remuneration through HCL America Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary incorporated in California.
The board had already signalled this trajectory a year earlier, approving a planned increase of over 71% to $18.6 million for FY26 when it disclosed his FY25 pay of $10.85 million. The bulk of Vijayakumar’s compensation continues to come from long-term incentives rather than base pay, reflecting a structure increasingly common among Indian IT chief executives whose pay is tied to stock performance and multi-year retention.
The scale of the gap between Vijayakumar’s pay and that of rank-and-file HCLTech employees is likely to draw renewed attention to executive compensation ratios at a time when Indian IT firms are simultaneously managing layoffs and subdued wage hikes for broader staff.
