Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy lashed out at the high wage hikes senior managements have been apportioning to themselves when the software industry is in trying times. He advised them to make “sacrifices” in a bid to maintain the common man's faith in capitalism. The corporate thought-leader dismissed commonly attributed threats of artificial intelligence and automation as “more hype than reality”. Calling the trend of no hikes for juniors and freshers as “worrisome”, he rued that the senior level people have been taking handsome hikes.
Speaking at IIT-Bombay, he said, “I think that it is not the way to make capitalism acceptable to the larger masses in a country that has huge poverty. If we believe in capitalism, if we believe that is the best solution for the country to move forward, then the leaders of capitalism will have to demonstrate self-restraints in apportioning to themselves the part of the benefits that come out of running companies.” Murthy has been a vocal proponent of “compassionate capitalism” since his working days in the company. He had even gone on public with his displeasure over senior executive compensation at Infosys.
Murthy informed his audience that in the last seven years, salaries of freshers in the software industry have stayed stagnant while the same for senior-level employees have grown by up to 1,000 per cent. “If all of us make sacrifices, then the youngsters will understand,” he said.
