Structure of Executive Compensation in India

Abstract

The soaring level of executive compensation has been an issue of much public as well as policy concern over decades. For an emerging economy like India, which is already characterized by income inequality and rich-poor divide, this matter assumes utmost significance. From a deeper inspection, the form rather than the level constitutes the real problem. Thus, the present study has been undertaken with an objective to study the structure of top managerial pay in the Indian context. Compensation components of top executives of 209 sample companies listed on the S&P BSE 500 Index have been studied over FY 2008-09 to 2012-13 across six industry sectors. Results of ANOVA along with post-hoc tests confirmed inter-industry differences in the pay practices of the sample companies. Moreover, extreme domination of the fixed pay component could be observed over the years. The use of more and multiple long-term incentivizing mechanisms has, therefore, been recommended. Future research can enrich the present analysis by exploring the relationship of various pay components with corporate performance measures.

Keywords: Executive Compensation Structure, Industry-Wise, Year-Wise, ANOVA, India

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