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Cognizant

CTSH
USCIS INITIAL APPROVALS: 980A global IT services and consulting firm with heavy H-1B usage and documented discrimination litigation context.
LCA Filings (FY2025)
11,194
Initial Approvals (FY2025)
980
USCIS Hub Rank (FY2025)
#7
Avg H-1B Salary
$111,630
BLS Market Median
$130,160

FY2020-FY2025 Filing and Wage Profile

Cognizant remained a large U.S. visa sponsor across FY2020-FY2025 with 101,580 certified LCA filings in this dataset. Annual volume declined from 29,350 in FY2020 to 11,194 in FY2025, a 61.9% drop, with a temporary rebound in FY2023.

Wages moved in the opposite direction. Average H-1B salary rose from $88,876 in FY2020 to $111,630 in FY2025, up 25.6%. In FY2025, Cognizant's average H-1B salary was $18,530 below the BLS software developer median and $2,277 above its own reported prevailing wage level.

Key finding
101,580 LCAs in FY2020-FY2025
29,350 in FY2020 vs 11,194 in FY2025 (61.9% lower).
LCA Filings by Year

5 total denials across all years (0.0% of filings) - too small to display on this chart.

H-1B Approval Rate Over Time

Landmark Litigation Context

In Vartan Piroumian et al. v. Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp., filed in 2017 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, a jury found in October 2024 that Cognizant engaged in intentional pattern-or-practice discrimination against non-Indian workers and authorized punitive damages.

The case record reports that non-South Asian workers were six times more likely to be terminated from the bench, non-South Asian and non-Indian workers were 8.4 times more likely to be terminated from the bench overall, and non-visa workers had a 30% bench termination rate versus 3% for visa holders, who were 99% Indian-origin.

Project sources also state a December 2024 Phase II ruling by Chief U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee finding disparate impact from "Visa Readiness," "Visa Utilization," and related staffing practices during 2016-2022.

This litigation period overlaps with the highest filing years in this dataset. Cognizant logged 29,350 LCA filings in FY2020, 19,725 in FY2021, and 14,015 in FY2022, which is a large operational footprint for any staffing practice finding.

Key finding
8.4x bench termination disparity
Case materials report a statistically extreme disparity at high operational scale.
Avg H-1B Salary vs BLS Market Rate
Workforce Share Not Used
Metric intentionally suppressed

This site no longer charts H-1B filings as a share of workforce. The ratio can blur U.S. employees, global employees, contractors, and offshore delivery headcount into one denominator.

Rows with a disclosed U.S.-employee denominator available here: 0. The analysis now uses filings, approvals, wage, worksite, and title concentration instead.

Data Coverage and Remaining Limits

This page now includes normalized FY2020-FY2025 LCA volume, FY2020-FY2025 salary trends, USCIS approvals, and a populated top job-title distribution for Cognizant.

One limitation still matters for interpretation. Workforce share is not computed because the dataset has no populated U.S. employee base for Cognizant. The top-occupation chart now uses normalized expansion aggregate rows for this company.

Key finding
1 known data gap
No U.S. employee denominator for workforce share; occupation rows are normalized expansion aggregates for Cognizant.
Top H-1B Occupations
Top H-1B Job Titles
#Job TitleCount
1Manager JC5026,110
2Senior Systems Analyst JC6022,705
3Manager JC50 - Computer Systems Engineers/Architects11,009
4Senior Associate JC60 -Computer Systems Engineers/Architects6,524
5System Analyst JC655,218
6Senior Manager JC455,180
7Senior Manager JC45 - Computer Systems Engineers/Architects3,152
8Sa JC60 - Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers2,042
9Senior Associate JC60 - Computer Systems Engineers1,814
10Mgr. JC50 - Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers1,741

Get the Full Picture

Deep dives on H-1B data, wage pressure, and labor-market policy tradeoffs. Independent analysis with primary-source links and reproducible methodology.

Data Sources

  • DOL OFLC LCA disclosure data for Cognizant filing, wage, occupation, and job-title records
  • USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub for approval and denial history, including FY2025 ranking context
  • Public litigation records and reporting for the Cognizant discrimination case context
  • BLS wage benchmark: Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2023