Amid layoffs, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai gets $226-mn pay package

Despite looming recession and layoffs, Google CEO Sundar Pichai earned hundreds of millions as he received total compensation of about $226 million in 2022.

According to Alphabet Inc's securities filing, it is more than 800 times his salary and the compensation included stock awards of about $218 million, Reuters reported. The stock grand are give out on an annual basis.

Apart from Pichai, senior vice president of Google's knowledge and information Prabhakar Raghavan and chief business officer Philipp Schindler received about $37 million, according to a report in Bloomberg. Also, Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat's compensation stood at $24.5 million for 2022.

This development comes at a time when Alphabet Inc has reduced its staff globally by 12,000 or six per cent of its global workforce.

In January, Google parent Alphabet announced that it was planning to cut roughly 12,000 jobs for changing "economic reality." Pichai had stated that the hiring were done during "periods of dramatic growth."

"We've undertaken a rigorous review across product areas and functions to ensure that our people and roles are aligned with our highest priorities as a company," Pichai said. "The roles we're eliminating reflect the outcome of that review."

"The fact that these changes will impact the lives of Googlers weighs heavily on me, and I take full responsibility for the decisions that led us here," he added.

Pichai said that the layoffs "cut across" product areas, functions, levels and regions.

Also, the company has taken several cost-cutting measures. It has recently cut back on employee benefits and services, CNBC report said.

It has cut back on the frequency of laptop replacements for employees, fitness classes, staplers, etc.

"This work is particularly vital because of our recent growth, the challenging economic environment, and our incredible investment opportunities to drive technology forward - particularly in AI," Google's finance chief Ruth Porat said in an email to the employees recently.