Google increases pay of top brass after 'refusing' to hike workers' pay

New Delhi: Google is increasing the salaries of at least four of its top-most senior executives, hiking base salaries from $650,000 to $1 million. The salary hike has come after the tech giant informed its employees that the firm wouldn’t automatically adjust salaries to account for inflation.

The top employees who are receiving the new packages include 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, according to the latest company filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. 

"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 its filing.

The four employees are also 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," according to the filing.

Moreover, the top brass has also been provided with stock awards with target values in the millions of dollars, according to a report by IANS. For instance, Porat will be granted one tranche of performance stock units (PSUs) with a target value of $5,000,000 and one tranche of restricted stock units (GSUs) worth $18,000,000.

On the other hand, Raghavan will receive one tranche of PSUs with a target value of $12,000,000, and a tranche of GSUs worth $23,000,000, the filing revealed. Schindler and Walker will also be granted similar types of tranches. 

Previously, Google had reportedly clarified that the tech giant would not automatically adjust all employees` salaries to account for inflation. Google’s Vice President of compensation, Frank Wagner, told employees in a meeting that the company does not "have any plans to do any type of across-the-board type adjustment" when asked about the inflation rate in the US, reported 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. Also Read: Pay zero income tax on Rs 10 lakh salary; check calculation to save money

In a statement, a company spokesperson had said: "Employees receive bonus and equity as part of their total compensation, which also includes generous benefits and flexibility". Also Read:  Centre slaps Rs 653 crore import duty evasion notice on Xiaomi

- With IANS inputs. 

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