Sundar Pichai Announces Salary Cuts For Senior Role Employees of Google Including Himself

A few days after cutting 12,000 jobs across, reports are appearing that Google CEO Sundar Pichai is all set to take a large chunk of his salary cut amid tough macroeconomic conditions and layoffs. He even said in a recent town hall meeting to the Google staff that all roles above the “senior vice president” level will witness a significant reduction in their annual bonus, reported India Today.

“All roles above the senior vice president level will witness a very significant reduction in their annual bonus. For senior roles, the compensation is linked to company performance,”

Though he didn’t mention that he will take a pay cut, however, he also didn’t clear on the percentage of salary that will be cut and for how long.

Earlier, Pichai received a massive hike in salary a few weeks before Google announced layoffs. Recognising Pichai’s strong performance as CEO, Google’s parent company Alphabet raised Pichai’s salary.

As per details, Pichai was given two tranches of PSUs with a target value of $63 million each and $84 million in the form of Alphabet’s restricted stock units, added the news website.

According to IIFL Hurun India Rich List 2022, Pichai’s net worth fell 20 percent to ₹5,300 crores, but he still ranks amongst the top richest professional managers.

Pichai received a massive salary hike just a few weeks before the layoffs. His parent company, Alphabet, recognized Pichai’s successful CEO and granted him two tranches of PSUs with a target value of $63 million each and $84 million in the form of Alphabet’s restricted stock units. The award was also tweaked to increase the performance of stock units from 43% to 60%, increasing the performance requirements for the payout.

Many impacted employees have reported that they were not ready for the layoffs and that their access to internal office groups was abruptly removed. Some employees also complained that they found out about their layoffs when their ID access turned from green to red, as per ET.

The layoffs at Google have started in the United States and will be followed by other markets, possibly including India, in the coming weeks, as per the report. This is a difficult time for the company, as the layoffs come amid tough macroeconomic conditions. Pichai has clarified that the layoffs were not “random” and were based on specific performance ratings.

Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai wont be the first CEO to take a pay cut in recent times. David Solomon, the CEO of Goldman Sachs Group had taken a hit recently. His 2022 compensation was cut by about 30% to $25 million last week. Goldman Sachs CEO Solomon joined Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman on the list of CEOs accepting a pay cut.

While tech giants such as Microsoft, Google, Amazon, HP, Meta, and many others have been announcing mass layoffs, some CEOs taking pay cuts seems to be another move to possibly avoid more layoffs and help in cost cutting.