Google CEO Sundar Pichai Likely To Take Huge Pay Cut For Senior Executives

Google CEO Sundar Pichai is likely to announce a significant pay cut for senior executives. In a recent town hall meeting with Google employees, the CEO reportedly announced that all roles above the senior vice-president level will see a significant reduction in their annual bonus. For senior roles, he said, the compensation is linked to the company performance. However, according to reports, Pichai didn't mention the percentage of salary that will be cut and for how long.

The pay cut announcement comes just weeks after the announcement of Google's layoff of 12,000 employees. The action was taken to reduce operation costs amid fears of a global recession. In a letter to employees, he said as an almost 25-year-old company, Google is bound to go through difficult economic cycles. According to an ET report, the layoffs at Google have started in the United States and will be followed by other markets, possibly including India, in the coming weeks. This is a difficult time for the company, as the layoffs come amid tough macro-economic conditions.

In a meeting while addressing the layoffs last week, Pichai admitted that he had miscalculated the lack of growth that followed after a massive hiring push for the company. Had Google continued to grow as predicted at the end of 2021, Pichai explained, the hiring push would have positioned the company to continue to succeed in its sector instead of being forced to fall behind in many areas, as per reports.

Pichai's salary has recently seen an increase for his strong performance as CEO. As per a filing from 2020, Pichai's annual salary was $2 million. According to the IIFL Hurun India Rich List 2022, the Google CEO's net worth fell 20% to INR 5,300 crore.