Short answer: Hire the company secretary for the statutory seat you actually have, not for a CXO package you saw somewhere else. In FY2025-26 annual reports, the only published median for a company secretary is ₹21 lakh, at companies with revenue under ₹1,000 crore (17 companies). The middle half of that group runs from ₹13 lakh to ₹28 lakh. Every other revenue band, and every city, is unpublished, because fewer than 10 companies disclosed a usable amount. Those are annual-report medians. They are not survey figures, and they are not blended with surveys.
I'm Vinay Pasricha. I run GoodSpace AI, a hiring company in Noida, and I wrote Organizational Frequency. A company secretary is not a CFO and not a general counsel. This is what I would tell a founder who has decided the next seat is that one.
Start with the statute, then the company
In a listed company the company secretary is a statutory officer. The board papers have to be true, the meetings have to be real, and a regulator has to be answerable without the founder reconstructing the file from memory. In a company that is not yet listed, the same person is often the one who will get you there: the cap table, the filings, the promises already made to investors.
Write down which of those you have. A founder who still signs every resolution and then asks someone to "do the secretarial" is not describing a company secretary. They are describing a filing clerk, and they will hire the wrong one if they do not say so.
What listed companies disclosed in FY2025-26
The figure in this section comes from one source: remuneration disclosures in FY2025-26 annual reports of listed Indian companies. Each value was checked against the report page it came from. A median is published only where at least 10 companies had a usable amount. The unit is total remuneration as disclosed. It can include commission, perquisites and the perquisite value of stock options where the company counts them. No company and no person is named.
This is not a survey range. Survey figures sit on the India Leadership Pay Benchmark in their own section, because they measure different things. Do not average them with the median below.
| Group | Median | Middle half (P25–P75) | Companies |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue under ₹1,000 crore | ₹21 lakh | ₹13 lakh to ₹28 lakh | 17 |
Four revenue bands are not published for company secretaries, because fewer than 10 companies disclosed a usable amount: ₹1,000–5,000 crore, ₹5,000–10,000 crore, ₹10,000–50,000 crore, and above ₹50,000 crore. Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Ahmedabad and Kolkata are not published for this role for the same reason. Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune do not have a published cell for any role. City here means the registered office, which is not always the head office.
The full table, including the CEO, whole-time director and CFO cells that clear the same bar, is on the India Leadership Pay Benchmark. You can download every published cell as a CSV. Groups under 10 companies are not in the file.
Read the spread before you read the median. At companies under ₹1,000 crore of revenue, the middle half already runs from ₹13 lakh to ₹28 lakh. A single number in a WhatsApp forward is not a benchmark, and a CFO median is the wrong benchmark for this seat.
What I would not copy
I would not take a CFO package and offer it to a company secretary because both people "deal with compliance." How to hire a CFO in India is a different seat, and its published cells are different. I would also not treat ₹21 lakh as a cap. It is the middle of 17 companies under ₹1,000 crore of revenue, and the middle half already reaches ₹28 lakh before anyone talks about a listing, a messy group structure, or a board that does not yet know how to meet.
Use the cell that matches the company in front of you. If your company is above ₹1,000 crore of revenue, this annual-report set does not publish a company-secretary median for you. Say that, and do not invent one. If the company is unlisted, these figures are still the only annual-report reference I will cite, and they are a reference, not an offer letter.
Fit is the part that costs you
Most bad hires are not bad people. They are good people in the wrong place. A company secretary who was excellent inside a process-heavy listed group can look lost in a founder-led company within a quarter, with the same qualification and the same work ethic.
Watch for these clashes. They are specific to this seat.
- Filing versus judgement. You need someone who will tell you a resolution is not ready. They want a checklist and a promoter who already agrees.
- Your week versus their calendar. You want the papers the night before the board. They want a cycle, a review, and a notice period the statute actually allows. One of those habits will not survive your month.
- The team they assume. They have sat with a secretarial team and a general counsel. You have a consultant and a founder who drafts on WhatsApp. The first ninety days will be them building the record, or them waiting for a department that does not exist.
- Ambiguity. A related-party mess, a subsidiary that was never minuted, a founder who is also the chairman. Some company secretaries get sharper in that room. Some withdraw into the form.
One of these means little. Three of them together usually mean you hired the qualification. What a bad hire really costs in India is the rupee version of waiting too long to admit it. The salary is the smallest line.
How I would run the hire
The doctrine has four stages. They are a posture, not a funnel.
- Understand your own frequency first. Write down how the board actually decides, how late the papers usually are, and what happens when a filing is wrong. If the founder is the only person who can explain the group structure, say so. That paragraph is the job.
- Discover how they operate, not only which certificate they hold. Membership is the entry condition. Ask what they did on a week when the board wanted to pass something that should not have been passed. Ask what changed afterwards.
- Validate against the environment. Give them a real problem from your minute books, with the names removed. Sit with them. A case about a fictional listed company tests performance. This tests whether they can work in your room.
- Grow, or notice that you cannot. Name the first ninety days. What does "the record is true" mean in your company, in writing? If the frequency is wrong, more training produces a better-trained mismatch.
When a search is worth it
Use your own network when the seat is narrow and a company you respect will tell you who actually held the file. Use a search when you are listing, raising, or cleaning a group, and the names you can call are the same consultants you already have. The person you need is often not applying.
Leadership search is how GoodSpace runs CXO mandates, against the frequency of the company rather than a generic template. A company secretary is often hired beside those mandates, not instead of them. If the seat you actually need is finance, read the CFO essay. If it is the chief executive, read How to hire a CEO in India. The pay cells are different, and so is the test.
FAQ
How much does a company secretary earn in a listed Indian company?
In FY2025-26 annual reports, the only published median is ₹21 lakh, where revenue is under ₹1,000 crore (17 companies). The middle half of that group runs from ₹13 lakh to ₹28 lakh. Other revenue bands and cities are not published, because fewer than 10 companies disclosed a usable amount. These are annual-report medians. They are not blended with surveys.
Should I pay a company secretary like a CFO?
No. The CFO cells are a different role. The ₹21 lakh median is the middle of listed companies under ₹1,000 crore of revenue, for the company secretary. It is not a CFO number, and it is not a cap.
Do I hire a company secretary before I am listed?
Hire the job you wrote down. If investors are already in the conversation and the minute book cannot explain the last year, you need the seat even if the company is still private. If the need is a single annual filing and the founder is still the decision-maker on every resolution, a practising company secretary on retainer may be the honest first step. Do not buy the title to postpone that choice.