Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, appears to be taking a significant pay cut as a result of layoffs and difficult macroeconomic conditions. Pichai said in a recent town hall meeting with Google employees that all roles beyond “senior vice president” will see a considerable drop in their annual bonus.
“All roles above the senior vice president level will witness ‘very significant’ reduction in their annual bonus. For senior roles, the compensation is linked to company performance,” During the town hall, Pichai reportedly stated. While he did not explicitly state that he would take a pay cut, his statements indicate that he would. Pichai did not specify how much of his income would be slashed or for how long.
Sundar Pichai received a huge pay raise just a few weeks before Google announced layoffs. At the time, Alphabet, Google’s parent company, acknowledged Pichai’s “strong performance” as CEO and stated that the vesting of a large portion of the award would be contingent on Alphabet’s overall shareholder return relative to other S&P 100 firms.
Alphabet also stated that the award was modified to enhance the performance stock units (PSUs) from 43% in 2019 to 60% in 2020, raising the performance criteria for the payout. Furthermore, the Google CEO was handed two tranches of PSUs with a target value of $63 million each, as well as $84 million in Alphabet’s restricted stock units.
So, what is Pichai’s annual salary? According to a 2020 filing, Google listed Pichai’s annual pay as $2 million. According to the IIFL Hurun India Rich List 2022, the Google CEO’s net worth has dropped 20% to Rs 5,300 crore. Nonetheless, he is one of the wealthiest professional managers on the list.
Google is having a difficult time. Pichai announced 12,000 job cuts across verticals just before the town hall. Many affected employees stated that they were unprepared for the layoffs and that Google immediately revoked their access to all internal office groups. In fact, some people claimed that they found out they were laid off when their ID access went red from green.
Many of the 12000 employees had been with Google for over a decade or more. Such employees were dissatisfied, believing that the layoffs were not based on performance. However, Pichai in the internal conference clarified that the layoffs were not “random”.
Google layoffs have begun in the United States and will be followed by other regions, possibly including India, in the coming weeks.
