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Google laid off a large number of employees but did not compromise on the salary of its CEO Sundar Pichai.
According to an SEC filing, the amount paid to Pichai was largely due to triennial stock awards worth $218 million.
Pichai's pay package in 2022 is much higher than other Alphabet executives.
Google laid off a large number of employees but did not compromise on the salary of its CEO Sundar Pichai. Pichai's exorbitant pay package also included stock awards worth about $218 million, according to the latest filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Notably, only a few months ago, Google laid off 12,000 employees as a cost-cutting measure. Measure.
According to an SEC filing, the amount paid to Pichai was largely due to triennial stock awards worth $218 million. In comparison, Pichai's salary was $6.3 million in the prior year, when he did not receive a stock award. However, his salary has remained the same at $2 million for the last three years.
Pichai's pay package in 2022 is much higher than other Alphabet executives. For example, Philipp Schindler, chief business officer, and Prabhakar Raghavan, Google's senior vice president of knowledge and information, both received roughly $37 million each. Ruth Porat, chief financial officer, received $24.5 million, and her stock grant is awarded annually, the filing showed.
CEO compensation has become a hot topic of discussion in the tech industry, especially after a wave of layoffs at Alphabet and other major companies. In January, after months of spending cuts and setting new priorities, Alphabet began cutting about 12,000 jobs, which is 6 percent of its global workforce.
Additionally, Apple CEO Tim Cook reduced his 2023 salary after receiving criticism for receiving $100 million each year for the past two years.
Despite the increase in Pichai's salary package, his salary has remained stagnant for the last three years. The $218 million stock award is based on the performance of Alphabet's stock over a three-year period. Pichai is responsible for overseeing Google's vast array of products, including Google Search, YouTube and Android, as well as Alphabet's other businesses such as Waymo and Verily.
In a letter to his employees in January, Pichai said, 'We have decided to reduce approximately 12,000 roles in our workforce. We have already sent a separate email to US employees who are affected. In other countries, the 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 loved working with. I am very sorry about this. The fact that these changes will impact the lives of Googlers weighs heavily on me, and I take full responsibility for the decisions that got us here.