In early 2025, IT consulting and outsourcing giant Cognizant set CEO Ravi Kumar S’ target pay for the year at $19 million, which was 18% higher than the $16.1 million set in 2024. Despite the $19 million package, the CEO took home $10.7 million in compensation last year, according to the company’s recent filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
This marked a 30% hike compared to his realised pay of $8.2 million in 2024. Meanwhile, his SEC-reported salary for the past year was $21.5 million, which was a 28% jump from the previous year.
Explaining the gap between his realised pay and the SEC-reported salary, the filing stated, “Kumar’s realised compensation was significantly lower than his target direct compensation primarily because his 2025 PSU grants are scheduled to vest, subject to the satisfaction of performance criteria, in future periods.
“His 2025 realised compensation consisted principally of his base salary, 2025 ACI award payout at 169% of target and quarterly vestings of RSUs in the aggregate amount of approximately $4,988,00.”
A breakdown of the Cognizant CEO’s salary
Having joined Cognizant in 2023, Ravi Kumar S’ realised pay of $10.7 million included a base salary of $1.3 million (up 9.2%), an annual cash incentive pay-out worth $4.39 million (169% of target), and restricted stock awards of approximately $4.99 million.
Addressing the company’s new-age focus, Kumar said in a letter to shareholders in the annual report, “Our mission is to bridge this gap by building bespoke AI-powered solutions to help simplify, reduce risk and accelerate our clients’ journeys to scaled AI adoption and value. By creating and owning the proprietary frameworks and methodologies that ground AI within the context of each client’s business, we are also capturing durable value in this new economy.”
Cognizant salaries: CEO vs employees
Kumar remained one of the top five compensated executives last year. The other four included CFO Jatin Dalal, whose annual compensation dropped 30% to $7.08 million; Chief Legal Officer John Kim; President of the Americas business, Surya Gummadi; and President of Asia Pacific and Japan and the industry solutions group, Ganesh Ayyar.
The SEC filing further established that the pay ratio of CEO to the median employee was 477:1, as opposed to 378:1 from the previous year. In addition to Ravi Kumar S’ compensation hike, the median pay of employees also rose to about $45,138 from $44,500 in the same period.
As of December 31, 2025, the Nasdaq-listed company had about 351,600 employees. Of these, 256,900 were in India and 41,600 were in North America.
The company notably attributed the increase in overall compensation to a stronger business performance under Kumar’s leadership. Last year, Cognizant recorded $21 billion in revenue, marking a 7% growth.