India's IT giants pay CEOs millions as turnover climbs among software talent
There is a wild mismatch between the salaries of the CEOs of Indian Information Technology companies and lower and mid-level employees, the latter seen here going about their business at the headquarters of India's best-known technology company, Infosys Technologies Ltd. in Bangalore in a stock photo.

The chief executive officers of Indian information technology companies are being paid big bucks as attrition rates surge among employees.

IT major Wipro's CEO Thierry Delaporte earned $10.5 million in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2022. Infosys CEO Salil Parekh began drawing $10.2 million this year under the terms of a new five-year contract, almost doubling his pay from 2021.

This means that Delaporte and Parekh will earn more in roughly three hours than the average employee would in an entire year, according to back-of-the-envelope calculations by Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate, an association of software employees in India.

NITES President Harpreet Singh Saluja told CNBC that Indian IT CEOs are taking home "obscenely high salaries" despite pandemic layoffs.

"Those that skirted layoffs did so by announcing pay cuts," Saluja said.

The CEO of India's largest software company Tata Consultancy Services Rajesh Gopinathan drew the lowest salary among his peers, with his pay totaling $3.2 million.

On Wednesday, Wipro reported quarterly revenue surged 17.9% from a year ago to $2.7 billion, while net income dropped 20.9% to $324.4 million.

Wipro also reported that 23.3% of its employees left in the three months ending June 30, a marginal drop from the 23.8% rate reported for the January-March quarter. During Wipro's April earnings call, Delaporte said the company will "increase the frequency of promotion cycles for 70% of our colleagues in junior bands, to now a quarterly basis."

Wipro did not respond to CNBC's requests for comment.