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Google raises pay of top brass after ‘refusing’ to hike workers’ pay

Google cuts 12,000 jobs as tech woes bite again
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After informing employees last month that it would not automatically adjust salaries to account for inflation, Google is raising the base salaries of four of its top-most senior executives from $650,000 to $1 million.

The new pay packages for Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat, senior vice president Prabhakar Raghavan (in charge of Google search), senior vice president and chief business officer Philipp Schindler, and Kent Walker, president of global affairs and chief legal officer, were disclosed in the company’s most recent SEC filing (SEC).

“Effective January 2022, the base salaries of each of Porat, Raghavan, Schindler, and Walker will be increased from $650,000 to $1,000,000,” Google said in the filing.

According to the filing, all four executives are eligible to “participate in a maximum $2,000,000 annual bonus programme, based on contributions to Google’s performance against social and environmental goals for 2022.”

Each individual has also been given stock options with target values in the millions of dollars.

Porat will receive one tranche of performance stock units (PSUs) with a target value of $5,000,000 and one tranche of restricted stock units (GSUs) with a target value of $18,000,000.

According to the filing, Raghavan will be granted one tranche of PSUs with a target value of $12,000,000 and one tranche of GSUs with a target value of $23,000,000.

Schindler will receive one tranche of PSUs with a target value of $12,000,000 and one tranche of GSUs with a target value of $23,000,000, while Walker will receive one tranche of PSUs with a target value of $5,000,000 and one tranche of GSUs with a target value of $18,000,000.

The pay increase for top executives comes after a top Google executive stated in December that the tech company would not automatically adjust all employees’ salaries to account for inflation.

When asked about the US inflation rate, Google’s Vice President of Compensation, Frank Wagner, told employees in a meeting that the company has “no plans to do any type of across-the-board type adjustment,” according to CNBC.

“Inflation does seem to be top of mind for a lot of folks, and I think one of the reasons is that people are pretty eager to get their compensation awards,” replied Wagner to a question by Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

However, Google “won’t introduce company-wide adjustments for inflation”.

“We don’t have any plans to do any type of across-the-board type adjustment,” he was quoted as saying in the report.

“Employees receive bonus and equity as part of their total compensation, which also includes generous benefits and flexibility,” a company spokesperson said in a statement.

Alphabet, the parent company of Google, has over 150,000 full-time employees worldwide and has seen its revenue and stock soar to record highs in the last year.

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Jike Eric

Jike Eric has completed his degree program in Chemical Engineering. Jike covers Business and Tech news on Insider Paper.







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