Ravi Kumar, CEO of Cognizant, was offered a hefty ₹137 crore pay package for the financial year 2024. But when it came down to it, he only took home about half—₹70 crore.
According to the company’s recent filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Kumar’s realised compensation stood at $8.2 million, a 14% jump from the previous year. The shortfall was due to unvested Performance Share Units (PSUs) that are tied to future performance, as reported by TOI.
The SEC proxy explained it like this, “Mr. Kumar's realised compensation was significantly lower than his target direct compensation primarily because his 2024 PSU grants are scheduled to vest, subject to the satisfaction of performance criteria, in future periods.”
What’s inside that paycheque?
Even with only a part of the package realised, Kumar’s salary structure is anything but modest. The target pay included:
Explaining the rationale, Cognizant’s filing stated, “The Compensation Committee determined that Mr. Kumar's target direct compensation for 2024 should be increased to $16,100,000 (11% increase vs. 2023) to reflect his performance in his first year as CEO and to better align his target compensation with CEOs in the 2024 peer group, taking into account compensation trends for CEOs.”
It’s worth noting that Kumar’s FY23 compensation was unusually high at $22.6 million, largely due to a one-time equity award granted when he joined the company in January 2023.
How his pay compares to other IT chiefs
Among his Indian IT peers, Kumar sits near the top—but not quite at the summit.
A huge gap between the CEO and the rank-and-file
One of the starkest revelations in the filing was Cognizant’s CEO-to-median employee pay ratio—378:1.
That means Ravi Kumar earned 378 times more than an average employee at the company. It’s a number that underscores the widening pay gap in the IT sector, especially when over 241,500 of Cognizant’s 336,800 employees are based in India, where average wages are significantly lower than in the US.
Who is Ravi Kumar, the Man at the helm
Ravi Kumar took over as Cognizant’s CEO in January 2023, after a long stint at Infosys where he served as president from 2016 to 2022. He holds an engineering degree from Shivaji University and an MBA from the Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar.
His first full year as CEO has clearly impressed Cognizant’s board, given the salary boost. But the heavy reliance on deferred performance-based shares suggests the company is betting on long-term results, not just short-term numbers.
According to the company’s recent filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Kumar’s realised compensation stood at $8.2 million, a 14% jump from the previous year. The shortfall was due to unvested Performance Share Units (PSUs) that are tied to future performance, as reported by TOI.
The SEC proxy explained it like this, “Mr. Kumar's realised compensation was significantly lower than his target direct compensation primarily because his 2024 PSU grants are scheduled to vest, subject to the satisfaction of performance criteria, in future periods.”
What’s inside that paycheque?
Even with only a part of the package realised, Kumar’s salary structure is anything but modest. The target pay included:
- Base Salary: ₹10.25 crore ($1.2 million) — up 20% from FY23
- Annual Cash Incentive (ACI): ₹20.49 crore ($2.4 million) — also up 20%
- Performance Share Units (PSUs): ₹64 crore ($7.5 million) — up 9%
- Restricted Stock Units (RSUs): ₹42.68 crore ($5 million) — up 9%
Explaining the rationale, Cognizant’s filing stated, “The Compensation Committee determined that Mr. Kumar's target direct compensation for 2024 should be increased to $16,100,000 (11% increase vs. 2023) to reflect his performance in his first year as CEO and to better align his target compensation with CEOs in the 2024 peer group, taking into account compensation trends for CEOs.”
It’s worth noting that Kumar’s FY23 compensation was unusually high at $22.6 million, largely due to a one-time equity award granted when he joined the company in January 2023.
How his pay compares to other IT chiefs
Among his Indian IT peers, Kumar sits near the top—but not quite at the summit.
- Thierry Delaporte, former CEO of Wipro, earned a staggering ₹166 crore ($20 million) in FY24, boosted by a ₹92.1 crore severance payout.
- Salil Parekh, CEO of Infosys, made ₹66 crore.
- K Krithivasan, CEO of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), took home ₹25.2 crore.
- Debashis Chatterjee, CEO of LTIMindtree, earned ₹19.34 crore.
- Amit Chadha, CEO of L&T Technology Services, saw his pay double to ₹15.4 crore.
A huge gap between the CEO and the rank-and-file
One of the starkest revelations in the filing was Cognizant’s CEO-to-median employee pay ratio—378:1.
That means Ravi Kumar earned 378 times more than an average employee at the company. It’s a number that underscores the widening pay gap in the IT sector, especially when over 241,500 of Cognizant’s 336,800 employees are based in India, where average wages are significantly lower than in the US.
Who is Ravi Kumar, the Man at the helm
Ravi Kumar took over as Cognizant’s CEO in January 2023, after a long stint at Infosys where he served as president from 2016 to 2022. He holds an engineering degree from Shivaji University and an MBA from the Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar.
His first full year as CEO has clearly impressed Cognizant’s board, given the salary boost. But the heavy reliance on deferred performance-based shares suggests the company is betting on long-term results, not just short-term numbers.
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