Cognizant CEO Ravi Kumar Earned ₹137 Crore in FY24 – Here’s a Look at Salary Breakdown and Earnings of Other IT Chiefs

The targeted pay package of Cognizant CEO Ravi Kumar S stood at a whopping ₹137 crore in FY24, however, as per the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (US SEC), he earned ₹70 crore.

Here’s a look at the reasons why the realised pay was lower than the targeted pay while drawing a comparison among his peers, including chiefs from Indian information technology companies, including Infosys, TCS and Wipro.

Breakdown of Cognizant CEO Ravi Kumar's Pay Package

As per the company’s filing, Cognizant CEO Ravi Kumar’s annual paycheck for FY25 soared by more than ₹70 crore ($8.2 million), up 14% from the previous year's salary, Times of India (TOI) reported.

However, the realised compensation was lower than the target price of ₹137 crore ($16.1 million) for 2024.

Here’s a look at the paycheck’s breakdown

* Base salary: ₹10.25 crore ($1.2 million), up 20 % YoY, compared to FY23 salary.

* ACI target: ₹20.49 crore ($2.4 million), up 20% YoY.

* Performance share units (PSUs) worth ₹64 crore ($7.5 million), up 9% YoY.

* Restricted stock units (RSUs) equalling ₹42.68 crore ($5 million), up 9% YoY.

Disparity in Cognizant pay ratio

Cognizant's CEO-to-median employee pay in 2024 stood at 378:1, meaning that Kumar earned 378 times more than the average employee in his company.

As of December 2024, Cognizant had around 3,36,800 global employees.

Salary comparison

As per a filing, Kumar’s paycheck stood at ₹137 crore, but the realised salary was ₹70 crore as the Performance Stock Units (PSUs) granted this year are set to be realised in the near future, provided specific criteria are met.

Here’s what other CEOs are getting at major Indian IT companies including Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Wipro, L&T Technologies, and LTIMindtree in FY24.

* Former Wipro CEO Thierry Delaporte: Highest paid IT CEO in India, with a whopping ₹166 crore ($20 million) salary, including a ₹92.1 crore severance package in FY24.

* Infosys CEO Salil Parekh earned ₹66 crore, company data showed.

* Debashis Chatterjee, CEO and MD or LTIMindtree withdrew ₹19.34 crore compensation in FY24, up 10% YoY.

* K Krithivasan, CEO and MD of TCS took a total compensation of ₹25.2 crore in FY24.