Sundar Pichai enjoys massive pay ahead of company's widespread layoffs
The chief executive officer of Google's parent company Alphabet earned nearly $226 million in 2022 as he received a massive boost from stock holdings.
CEO Sundar Pichai took home $225,985,145 last year, according to Alphabet's 2022 Summary Compensation Table.
His base salary is at $2 million, according to the filing, and he also received over $5 million for a private security detail.
A majority, or over $218 million, of his earnings was classified under stock awards, which gets a big boost every three years.
"In December 2022, the Compensation Committee granted a new equity award to Sundar to recognize his strong performance as our CEO," Alphabet said in its filing.
The CEO's total earnings in 2022 is a massive surge from his previous $6 million earnings in 2021 and $7 million in 2020.
"We design our executive officer compensation programs to attract and retain the world's best talent, support Alphabet's culture of innovation and performance, and align employee and stockholder interests," the filing said.
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Layoffs in background
The news of Pichai's massive compensation boost came on the heels of Alphabet announcing that it would lay off 12,000 roles.
"I take full responsibility for the decisions that led us here," Pichai said in a staff memo that was later made public.
In Europe, it has been reported that the company is offering generous packages to lure employees out the door.
The news also dropped following reports that Google employees only received 80% of their bonuses in January, with the remaining to 20% followed up in March or April.
Google employees across the world have since written an open letter to Pichai demanding a hiring freeze while the company carried out layoffs.
"Provide extra support to these and workers at risk of residence permit loss: help with job searches — internal and external — and provide adequate gardening leave," the employees said in the list of demands.