TCS CEO K Krithivasan’s salary rises 6% to cross ₹28 crore even as IT giant trims 23,460 jobs in FY26

TATA Consultancy Services chief executive officer and managing director K Krithivasan received a total remuneration of ₹28.1 crore in FY26, marking a 6 per cent increase from ₹26.5 crore a year earlier, according to the company’s annual report.

TCS ended FY26 with 584,519 employees on its rolls, compared with 607,979 employees at the end of FY25, indicating a reduction of 23,460 employees year-on-year, according to the company’s annual reports and quarterly disclosures.

Krithivasan’s compensation package included ₹1.67 crore in salary, ₹1.43 crore in benefits, perquisites and allowances, and ₹25 crore in commission. His remuneration was 332.8 times the median salary of TCS employees.

Chief operating officer Aarthi Subramanian earned a total remuneration of ₹18.3 crore in FY26, comprising ₹1.5 crore in base salary, ₹1.83 crore in benefits, perquisites and allowances, and ₹15 crore in commission, according to the company’s annual report.

The company said the increase in remuneration was broadly in line with employee salary revisions across geographies. Junior and mid-level employees in India received annual increments in the range of 4.5-7 per cent, while top performers got double-digit hikes. Employees outside India received wage increases between 1-6 per cent.

TCS said the increase in remuneration is in line with market trends in respective countries, adding that variable pay remains linked to organisational and individual performance.

Krithivasan, who took over as TCS CEO in 2023, has previously highlighted global macroeconomic uncertainty, geopolitical tensions and rapid artificial intelligence adoption as key factors shaping the technology services landscape.

Workforce reduction, restructuring remain under spotlight

The decline in workforce comes amid restructuring and workforce realignment measures undertaken by India’s largest IT services company over the past year.

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The company, in a statement, said the restructuring exercise was aimed at building a “future-ready organisation” with increased focus on artificial intelligence, new technologies and deployment changes across projects and teams.

TCS had earlier indicated that around 2 per cent of its global workforce, or nearly 12,000 employees, were impacted as part of restructuring and workforce optimisation measures, primarily in middle and senior management roles. This figure was reported by multiple media outlets like TOI and Reuters citing company disclosures.

According to The Economic Times, TCS clarified that the entire headcount decline should not be interpreted as layoffs alone, as attrition and normal employee movements also contributed to the reduction.

In his letter to shareholders, Krithivasan described the current business environment as an “increasingly complex macro-economic and geo-political environment”. He also said FY26 marked an “inflection point” for enterprise artificial intelligence (AI), with companies accelerating investments in AI-led transformation initiatives.

He added that enterprises are increasingly shifting from experimentation to large-scale deployment of AI, even as global clients remain cautious due to macroeconomic uncertainty and geopolitical volatility.