According to Reuters, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google’s parent company Alphabet, will be paid a total of $226 million in 2022 (currently about RMB 1.557 billion), more than 800 times the company’s median employee salary. The majority of Sundar Pichai’s revenue comes from stock awards, at around $218 million, up from $6.5 million in 2021 when there were no stock awards.
Sundar Pichai is an Indian-born American business executive who joined Google in 2004 and was responsible for product management and innovation, launching Google Chrome, Google Cloud Drive, Android and many other products. in 2015, was appointed CEO of Google, and in 2019, became CEO of Alphabet.
However, Sundar Pichai’s high salary has sparked some controversy as Alphabet has made massive job cuts in 2022 to reduce costs. In January, the company reportedly announced plans to cut 12,000 jobs worldwide, representing 6% of its total workforce. In addition, the company has faced protests and strikes by its employees. early April saw a strike by hundreds of employees at the Google offices in London over the dismissal of more than 200 employees, and a similar strike at the Google offices in Zurich in March.
Sundar Pichai’s stance on the layoffs is unclear. He said in an interview that he understood the discontent and concerns of employees, but that he also felt the company needed to make some adjustments and optimisations to adapt to changes in the market and competition. He also said that he would do his best to ensure transparency and fairness in the layoff process, and to give some compensation and assistance to the laid-off employees.
