Kamal Ghorui
Bengaluru: Cognizant CEO Ravi Kumar S’s realised compensation for 2025 stood at $10.6 million, up nearly 29% from the previous year, according to the company’s 2026 proxy filing. This included a base salary of $1.3 million, an annual cash incentive of $4.3 million, and RSU payouts of $4.9 million. Realised compensation reflects the actual pay received by a named executive in a given year.Kumar’s realised pay was significantly lower than his target direct compensation of $19 million, largely because his 2025 PSU grants are scheduled to vest in future years, subject to performance conditions.Among peers, C. Vijayakumar was the highest-paid CEO in Indian IT last year with total compensation of $10.8 million. Infosys CEO Salil Parekh saw a 22% increase in pay to ₹80.6 crore, while Wipro CEO Srinivas Pallia earned ₹53.6 crore in his first year in the role.Cognizant CFO Jatin Dalal’s realised compensation came in at $6.6 million, slightly above his $6 million target, driven by higher-than-target payouts. This included a 2025 bonus at 169% of target, PSU vesting of about $2.23 million (around 118% of target), and RSU vesting of roughly $2.17 million, along with his base salary.Cognizant delivered stronger-than-expected performance in 2025, exceeding the upper end of its revenue and margin guidance, supported by investments in AI, talent and large deals. Revenue rose 7% to $21.1 billion, with constant-currency growth of 6.4%, ahead of the revised 6%–6.3% guidance. Operating margin came in at 15.8%, above the earlier 15.3%–15.7% range. The company had initially guided for 3.5%–6% growth before raising it after the September quarter, and now expects 4%–6.5% growth in the current financial year. “We climbed from near the bottom of our peer group in 2022 to the winner’s circle on relative growth,” Kumar said.For 2025, Kumar’s SEC-reported compensation was $21.5 million. The company reported a worldwide median employee pay of $45,138. Based on CEO compensation of $21.5 million, this resulted in a CEO-to-median pay ratio of 477:1. In the US, the median employee earned $140,739, translating to a lower ratio of 153:1. These figures include cost-of-living adjustments based on Numbeo’s 2025 indices. Without such adjustments, the global median employee would have been an India-based worker earning $14,136 annually, pushing the pay ratio to 1,523:1.As of December last year, Cognizant had approximately 351,600 employees globally, including 256,900 in India, 41,600 in North America, 14,600 in Continental Europe, 7,800 in the UK, and about 30,700 across other regions.
