Cognizant, the IT major, is bucking industry trends by announcing salary hikes for over 300,000 employees this year. 

CEO Ravi Kumar announced in an internal note that the employees would get imminent salary hikes. The company gave an appraisal six months earlier in the year.

This week, the vast majority of you who are in levels up to Associate Director will receive your 2023 merit pay eLetters. Keep in mind that we advanced this merit increase to six months earlier in the year, following year-end performance reviews. "This means many of you are seeing your third merit increase in 18 months,” Kumar wrote.

Media reports said the big announcement came from the firm after Chief People Officer, Rebecca Schmitt resigned from her office. She will be leaving Cognizant effective May 5.

Kumar added, “Combined with the merit increases eligible directors and above received in January, Cognizant is awarding more than 300,000 associates a merit increase this year. Over the past couple of years, we’ve invested significantly more in compensation than we have recently because of how valuable you, our associates, are to Cognizant’s success."