Despite massive employee layoffs, Google did not reduce the pay of Sundar Pichai, its CEO. Pichai’s extravagant salary package also included stock awards worth nearly $218 million, according to the most recent filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Notably, Google recently let rid of close to 12,000 employees as a cost-cutting strategy.
According to the SEC filing, a triennial stock award worth $218 million had a significant role in the sum awarded to Pichai. When he did not get the stock reward the previous year, Pichai’s remuneration was $6.3 million. But for the past three years, his pay has stayed the same at $2 million.
In comparison to other Alphabet executives, Pichai’s compensation package is significantly larger. For instance, Prabhakar Raghavan, the Senior Vice President of Knowledge and Information at Google, and Philipp Schindler, the Chief Business Officer, each received roughly $37 million. According to the records, Ruth Porat, the Chief Financial Officer, received $24.5 million, and stock grants are given out yearly.
In the tech industry, CEO compensation has come up for debate, especially in light of recent rounds of layoffs at Alphabet and other big businesses. Approximately 12,000 positions, or 6% of Alphabet’s global staff, were eliminated starting in January as a result of months of budget reductions and the adoption of new priorities.
Additionally, Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, cut his 2023 compensation after facing backlash for earning $100 million per year for the previous two years.
Pichai’s pay package has grown, but his income hasn’t changed significantly during the past three years. The $218 million stock award is based on how Alphabet’s stock has performed over a three-year period.
Pichai is in charge of overseeing all of Google’s products and services, such as Google Search, YouTube, and Android, as well as all of Alphabet’s other companies, like Waymo and Verily.
Pichai in a letter to its employees in January had said: “We’ve decided to reduce our workforce by approximately 12,000 roles. We’ve already sent a separate email to employees in the US who are affected. In other countries, this process will take longer due to local laws and practices. This will mean saying goodbye to some incredibly talented people we worked hard to hire and have loved working with. I’m deeply sorry for that. The fact that these changes will impact the lives of Googlers weighs heavily on me, and I take full responsibility for the decisions that led us here.”
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