Short answer: Hire the whole-time director for the executive seat the board will actually give them, not for a title that sits beside the managing director and does the same work. In FY2025-26 annual reports, the median total remuneration disclosed for a whole-time director was ₹69 lakh at companies with revenue under ₹1,000 crore (27 companies), ₹1.43 crore at ₹1,000–5,000 crore (17 companies) and ₹3.77 crore at ₹10,000–50,000 crore (10 companies). Those are annual-report medians. They are not survey figures, and they are not blended with surveys. Pay is the part you can look up. The mandate is the part you have to write down.
I'm Vinay Pasricha. I run GoodSpace AI, a hiring company in Noida, and I wrote Organizational Frequency. A whole-time director is an executive board member. This is not a CEO package and not a non-executive directorship. This is what I would tell a board that has decided the next seat is that one.
Name the work the board will stop doing
A whole-time director is on the board and in the operating week. The failure I see is a person hired because the board wanted another executive name, while the managing director keeps every decision the new director was meant to own.
Write the split before you meet anyone.
- Which decisions move to this seat, and which stay with the managing director or the promoter.
- Whether the person is a specialist (manufacturing, finance, a plant, a business) or a general executive beside the chief executive.
- What they will stop being asked to do. A whole-time director who is still treated as a senior manager will leave, or will become one.
If you cannot say it in a paragraph, you are not ready to interview.
What listed companies disclosed in FY2025-26
Every figure in this section is a median from FY2025-26 annual reports of listed Indian companies. Each underlying value was checked against the report page it came from. A group is shown only when at least 10 companies disclosed a usable amount. The unit is total remuneration as disclosed, which may include commission, perquisites and the perquisite value of stock options. No company and no person is named.
Survey figures stay on the India Leadership Pay Benchmark, in their own section. Do not average them with these medians.
| Group | Median | Middle half (P25–P75) | Companies |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue under ₹1,000 crore | ₹69 lakh | ₹33 lakh to ₹1.91 crore | 27 |
| Revenue ₹1,000–5,000 crore | ₹1.43 crore | ₹1.14 crore to ₹3.06 crore | 17 |
| Revenue ₹10,000–50,000 crore | ₹3.77 crore | ₹1.87 crore to ₹9.57 crore | 10 |
| Mumbai registered office | ₹2.87 crore | ₹1.23 crore to ₹9.9 crore | 15 |
| Delhi NCR registered office | ₹2.07 crore | ₹97 lakh to ₹6.7 crore | 11 |
Two revenue bands are not published, because fewer than 10 companies disclosed a usable amount: revenue ₹5,000–10,000 crore, and revenue above ₹50,000 crore. 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 means the registered office, which is not always the head office.
The same cells, with the method, are on the India Leadership Pay Benchmark. Download every published cell (CSV).
Read the spread before you read the median. Under ₹1,000 crore of revenue, the middle half already runs from ₹33 lakh to ₹1.91 crore. At ₹10,000–50,000 crore it runs from ₹1.87 crore to ₹9.57 crore. One number in a WhatsApp forward is not a benchmark, and a CEO median is the wrong benchmark for this seat. The CEO cells are in How to hire a CEO in India.
What the number is for
Use the row that matches the company's revenue, and treat the city row as context for the registered office, not as the head-office market. A board hiring into a company under ₹1,000 crore of revenue is looking at a median of ₹69 lakh and a middle half that already reaches ₹1.91 crore. That spread is the point. The package is a negotiation inside a wide band. It is not a formula, and it is not the managing director's package with a discount.
If the company is unlisted, say so, and still do not invent a median. These cells are the annual-report reference. They are not a startup survey.
The test that matters
A resume tells you what someone has already survived. It does not tell you whether they can sit on this board and still do the operating work. The mismatch is usually with the managing director, not with the industry.
- The split. Ask for a time they joined a board where the chief executive stayed. What did each person stop doing? A polished answer with no scar is not evidence.
- Pace. Can they decide at the speed this company actually moves, including the decisions the promoter has been delaying?
- Specialist or generalist. A plant director and a second executive voice do not need the same person, even when the revenue looks similar.
- Whether the operators would work for them. Not whether they interview well with the board. Whether the people who already carry the place would stay.
What a bad hire really costs in India is why the salary is the small number when this seat goes wrong.
How I would run it
- Understand the company before you understand the candidates. Name the pace, the decision style, and the work this seat will take from the managing director. Until that is written, every interview is theatre.
- Discover. Look past the companies on the CV. Ask what they changed in the first six months, what they refused to change, and who disagreed. The hiring path is the longer version of this stage.
- Validate in the real environment. A day with the people who will report to them, on a live problem, beats a sequence of board conversations.
- Grow both, or separate cleanly. The first year needs a written account of what success is, and an honest review when the frequencies do not meet.
When to run a search
A board that already has the person can have the conversation directly. A board choosing from whoever will take a call from the chairman is not choosing. Leadership search is the work GoodSpace does for this kind of seat, built from the company's frequency rather than from a stack of director titles.
If the seat you are circling is actually the chief executive, read How to hire a CEO in India. If it is the statutory secretarial seat, read How to hire a company secretary in India. The published cells are different, and so is the test. The book behind this piece is Organizational Frequency.
FAQ
How much does a whole-time director earn in a listed Indian company?
In FY2025-26 annual reports, the median total remuneration for a whole-time director was ₹69 lakh at revenue under ₹1,000 crore (27 companies), ₹1.43 crore at ₹1,000–5,000 crore (17) and ₹3.77 crore at ₹10,000–50,000 crore (10). Revenue of ₹5,000–10,000 crore and revenue above ₹50,000 crore are not published. These medians are not blended with surveys.
Which city pays whole-time directors the most?
Among registered offices with at least 10 disclosures, the medians are Mumbai ₹2.87 crore (15 companies) and Delhi NCR ₹2.07 crore (11). Ahmedabad and Kolkata are not published for this role. Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune are not published for any role. Registered office is not always the head office, and the middle half in Mumbai runs from ₹1.23 crore to ₹9.9 crore. Do not rank cities by the median alone.
Is a whole-time director the same as a CEO?
No. The CEO and managing director cells are a different role, with different medians. Do not price this seat from the CEO essay. Use the whole-time director cell that matches the company in front of you, and do not invent a cell where this set has not published one.