What Powered Salil Parekh's ₹82-Cr Pay Package At Infosys?

Infosys Chief Executive Officer Salil Parekh saw his total remuneration rise marginally in FY26, earning ₹82.6 crore during the year compared with ₹80.6 crore in the previous fiscal, according to the company's latest annual report.

The increase was largely driven by gains from stock-based incentives, which continued to form the biggest component of Parekh's compensation package. During FY26, he received ₹50.75 crore in perquisites arising from exercised restricted stock units (RSUs), slightly higher than the ₹49.5 crore recorded in FY25.

Alongside stock-option gains, Parekh drew a fixed annual salary of ₹8.5 crore, while performance-linked incentives and variable compensation amounted to ₹23.35 crore.

The annual report showed that the CEO exercised 2,72,400 RSUs under Infosys' 2015 stock incentive plan and another 64,690 RSUs under the company's 2019 plan during the year.

Stock Rewards Dominate Pay

Infosys also awarded fresh stock-based incentives to Parekh during FY26. These included performance-linked RSUs tied to financial targets, environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals, and total shareholder return benchmarks.

The company additionally granted annual time-based RSUs and further performance-linked awards under its 2019 compensation framework, highlighting the growing importance of equity-linked rewards in executive compensation structures across the technology sector.

According to disclosures in the annual report, Parekh's total remuneration, including exercised stock incentives, was 742 times the median salary of Infosys employees during FY26.

Excluding gains from exercised stock options, the pay ratio fell to 289 times the median employee remuneration.

The disclosure comes at a time when Infosys has yet to announce salary hikes for employees for FY27. Earlier, Chief Financial Officer Jayesh Sanghrajka said the company was continuing to evaluate both the timing and extent of wage revisions amid ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty.

Revenue Milestone, AI Push

The compensation increase coincided with a year in which Infosys crossed the $20-billion annual revenue milestone and delivered adjusted operating margins of 21% during FY26.

In his letter to shareholders, Parekh highlighted the company's continued focus on artificial intelligence-led business transformation. He said AI initiatives have now been implemented across 90% of Infosys' top 200 clients.

"We are harnessing the power of our industry-leading AI Suite, Infosys Topaz, to help enterprises accelerate growth and productivity from AI," Parekh said in the annual report.

The company also returned more than $4 billion to shareholders through dividends and share buyback programmes during the year.

Infosys continued expanding its workforce despite a challenging demand environment for the technology sector. The company hired more than 20,000 college graduates during FY26 and ended the year with a global workforce exceeding 3.25 lakh employees