Sundar Pichai News: Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet Inc, has received a total compensation of about $226 million (about 1855 crores) in 2022, which is more than 800 times the average employee’s salary. Google has given this new information to the exchange about its CEO, which states that most of this has been shown to him as a stock award.
The filing showed that Sundar Pichai’s compensation included an approximately $218 million stock award.
Alphabet, the parent company of Google, has Indian-origin Sundar Pichai as its CEO. There is a vast disparity between a typical company employee and their package. Sundar Pichai received this package when Alphabet was laying off employees globally. Based in Mountain View, California, the company announced in January that it would lay off 12,000 employees worldwide, 6 per cent of its total workforce.
Massive Layoffs At Google
Earlier this month, hundreds of Google employees left the company’s London offices after a dispute over layoffs. Google workers also left the Zurich offices in March after the company laid off more than 200 employees.
The stock award portion of his salary was $218 million, according to a filing Friday by Alphabet, Google’s parent company. When he didn’t receive a grant in 2021, he got a total of $6.3 million in compensation, and his salary has remained steady at $2 million over the past three years.
Let us tell you that Alphabet gave this huge package to its CEO when Google was facing a big threat from the new Artificial Intelligence startup Chatbot ChatGPT. A broader tech recession has also taken a toll on the company, with its shares down 39% in 2022. Nevertheless, they made a strong comeback in 2023 with a growth of 19%.
Sundar Pichai’s stock award comes on a three-year schedule, and he received a similar-sized package in 2019. That year, the executive was awarded $281 million.
CEO’s Compensation Became A Sensitive Topic
CEO compensation has become a sensitive topic in the technology sector, especially after a wave of layoffs at Alphabet and other significant companies has raised serious questions. Apple Inc CEO Tim Cook took compensation of $ 100-100 million every year for the last two years, but after their anger grew, he decided to reduce his salary.
At the same time, the compensation that Sundar Pichai has received for 2022 is more than all the high officials of Google. At the same time, Google’s Senior Vice President of Knowledge and Information Prabhakar Raghavan and Chief Business Officer Philipp Schindler has been given about $ 37 million each. Meanwhile, Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat’s compensation is $24.5 million. Their stock grants are granted on an annual basis.
The Rationale Behind Laying Off Employees
In January this year, when Alphabet announced to lay off employees, the company argued that it was being done to reduce costs. It was said on behalf of the company that other expenses are also being cut.
But, according to Alphabet’s filing, the average total compensation for employees in 2022 was $279,802, with Sundar Pichai’s salary at 808 times that amount. As part of his compensation package, Alphabet has spent $5.94 million on personal security for Sundar Pichai, according to the filing.
