Google CEO Sundar Pichai likely to take huge pay cut after sacking 12,000 employees  

After firing 12,000 employees, Google CEO Sundar Pichai is likely to announce a significant pay cut for senior executives. In a town hall meeting with employees, Pichai recently said that all roles above the 'senior vice president' level will witness a reduction in their annual bonus.

He reportedly said that all roles above the senior vice president level will witness 'very significant' reduction in their annual bonus. For senior roles, he said, the compensation is linked to company performance.

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While he didn't talk about who will be affected, it is likely that he will also take a pay cut as a top executive. Pichai, however, did not mention the percentage of salary that will be cut and for how long.

In December last year, Google approved a new equity award for Pichai. The tech company said the board had recognised Pichai's 'strong performance' as CEO.

Pichai, who is given an equity award every three years, was granted two tranches of PSUs with a target value of $63 million each and was also given a grant of $84 million in the form of parent company Alphabet's restricted stock units, according to Reuters.

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 per cent to Rs 5,300 crore.

On January 20, Pichai sacked 12,000 employees 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. "These are important moments to sharpen our focus, re-engineer our cost base, and direct our talent and capital to our highest priorities," he said.

Pichai's move to fire thousands of employees came under heavy scrutiny, with many on social media suggesting he should take a salary cut instead of sacking staff. Some people also gave the example of Apple CEO Tim Cook who recently announced that he would take 40 per cent pay cut.

In a filing with the SEC, Apple said its CEO Tim Cook will receive a pay cut this year to $49 million in total compensation.