CEOs’ pay climbed before layoffs at tech giants like Alphabet and Microsoft • Hacker News Board

Re: CEOs’ pay climbed before layoffs at tech giants like Alphabet and Microsoft

#111

Post by opportune » Sat, Aug 05, 2023, 11:48 PM UTC

mycentstoo wrote: post #78

melenaboija wrote: post #26

> Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai was awarded compensation worth more than $225 million in 2022 I know this has been discussed here and 225MM is like the salary of 1000 employees making 200K for only one year, it is stock which is volatoile, that the salary of a CEO is impossible to measure, bla bla bla. But holy guacamole, whatever is the angle I look at it 225MM pear year does not make any f_ing sense to me and it is si…

I wish I understood why so many options are granted in the first place. If they offered 10,000 fewer options, would performance be any worse? Wouldn't a lot of people be vying for that same position and couldn't the company use that to drive down compensation? Couldn't a company in fact, trade on the idea that the extra power and prestige offsets the need for additional stock compensation? And how much of the stock p…

Sundar, like many other Google insiders, almost certainly has so much money he could just retire and live a life of luxury if he wanted to. And almost certainly he could probably choose a position within Alphabet with less responsibility like Chief Product Officer. To me it’s almost certainly a matter of the founders thinking he’s the best person in the world for the job of CEO and paying him a ton to justify the responsibility and stress of a position he could just decline.

This will sound insane but $200mm at Google scale is not even that much. All in, it’s about the cost of having another 200 SWE org or increasing earnings by like 1%. If it’s enough to keep him happy it’s easily worth it

Re: CEOs’ pay climbed before layoffs at tech giants like Alphabet and Microsoft

#112

Post by charles_f » Sat, Aug 05, 2023, 11:49 PM UTC

jvmfjvfjvf wrote: post #77

vouaobrasil wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe it's a good thing to repeat it again and again so we can see how ridiculous it is. Sometimes people really need to be hit on the head.

Why is it ridiculous when NFL and NBA players have $500MM contracts? Why shouldn't Google be allowed to pay these large contracts too?

This is a pure "what about" argument. Both of these examples are ridiculous.

Re: CEOs’ pay climbed before layoffs at tech giants like Alphabet and Microsoft

#113

Post by whimsicalism » Sat, Aug 05, 2023, 11:49 PM UTC

opportune wrote: post #79

whimsicalism wrote: post #49

I am extremely skeptical that at the higher levels of CEO pay there is any marginal utility. I just don’t think the improved management quality you get from an additional $1M is actually making the company more than $1M in profits. Seems like a failure of markets

$1mm/year is such a drop in the bucket for a company making $100,00mm/year it almost doesn’t matter. It’s not about the marginal benefits of paying the same guy just a tiny bit more anyhow, it’s about paying that guy enough that he doesn’t just decide to retire, or run a competing company, or start his own. Imagine if you think some guy is the most qualified person in the world to run your company, even if they only…

Right, I understand the justifications for CEO pay. I am just saying that I absolutely do not believe that for large public companies he is 1% better than the second choice.

Re: CEOs’ pay climbed before layoffs at tech giants like Alphabet and Microsoft

#114

Post by scyzoryk_xyz » Sat, Aug 05, 2023, 11:49 PM UTC

whitepaint wrote: post #53

melenaboija wrote: post #26

> Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai was awarded compensation worth more than $225 million in 2022 I know this has been discussed here and 225MM is like the salary of 1000 employees making 200K for only one year, it is stock which is volatoile, that the salary of a CEO is impossible to measure, bla bla bla. But holy guacamole, whatever is the angle I look at it 225MM pear year does not make any f_ing sense to me and it is si…

Google is a $1.6T company. For a guy that runs it to earn $200 M a year is basically nothing. Can he do good enough of job? Great, he's then definitely worth it (and, actually, he's worth much more).

That “he runs” it is entirely made up as well. It’s a $1.6T company - one person doesn’t run the show.

Is he worth more? Is he worth less? Literally all of this stuff is not anyone’s business outside of their company and their stakeholders. We can’t truly have a clue what doing a “good job” is with them, or what the compensation should be.

They want to ruthlessly hire-fire talent - it’s all entirely on them as a company. Being outraged about any of it is just as naïve as buying into the idea that their monopolies are built on merit and not on elite credentials and pedigree required to join the club.

For what it’s worth, I think the enormous payouts are there so that these guys’ judgement and decision making is 100% directed only on the company’s value and well-bring. They’re supposed to be in-bribeable.

Re: CEOs’ pay climbed before layoffs at tech giants like Alphabet and Microsoft

#115

Post by xcdzvyn » Sat, Aug 05, 2023, 11:50 PM UTC

jokoon wrote: post #56

I'm tired of capitalism. The less it's regulated, the more it opens the road to planned economy or tightly managed socialism. I'm glad I live in Europe. At least I can just retreat from this system with welfare and still eat and have a roof. Every time alternatives to capitalism are brought up, every time people come and say Stalin was worst than Hitler. It's impossible to discuss change or alternatives.

I really wish there were some platform to responsibly argue things. It could also offer establishing axioms to build arguments out from and whatnot.

I'm not aware of anywhere for people to argue their positions on most things in a civil manner.

Re: CEOs’ pay climbed before layoffs at tech giants like Alphabet and Microsoft

#116

Post by t_serpico » Sat, Aug 05, 2023, 11:50 PM UTC

Calavar wrote: post #62

Brybry wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think this is true for all of us, possibly not even for most people in the US. I know plenty of people who took lower paying jobs because they valued other things more than "growth": quality of life, family, passion, etc. I know people who have enough to meet their needs and are not actively working towards having more . People who retire by "aging in place" who do not care about the value of their home becau…

I think this is somewhat naive. The growth mindset pervades the entire economy, and virtually everyone's interests are bound into it one way or another. Yes, of course there are people who prioritize lifestyle over chasing money. No one will debate that. But if those people's retirement plans are dependent on a 401k or drawing payments from a pension fund and not just cash savings, then they are amongst the growth-ob…

To add on to this, unbridled capitalism also leads to more goods and services affordable for the average consumer. This makes the idea of taking a lower paying job appealing because you can still live a fairly comfortable life.

Re: CEOs’ pay climbed before layoffs at tech giants like Alphabet and Microsoft

#117

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Aug 05, 2023, 11:50 PM UTC

whimsicalism wrote: post #49

I am extremely skeptical that at the higher levels of CEO pay there is any marginal utility. I just don’t think the improved management quality you get from an additional $1M is actually making the company more than $1M in profits. Seems like a failure of markets

[deleted]

Re: CEOs’ pay climbed before layoffs at tech giants like Alphabet and Microsoft

#118

Post by hanniabu » Sat, Aug 05, 2023, 11:50 PM UTC

jvmfjvfjvf wrote: post #90

RugnirViking wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A distinction without a difference. Nobody is getting cash in that amount

There is a huge difference, If Google stock underperforms, he is not getting that compensation unlike salaried folks.

Stock fluctuations are irrelevant with this amount... stock could tank 20% and here's still getting $175M

Re: CEOs’ pay climbed before layoffs at tech giants like Alphabet and Microsoft

#119

Post by somewhereoutth » Sat, Aug 05, 2023, 11:52 PM UTC

Probably we can argue the rights and wrongs of individual cases, but surely now is the time for swinging wealth taxes. Clearly the system has got out of control, and everyday people are suffering while the rich lead gilded lives.

50% on everything over say 2MM, into a sovereign wealth fund. Prison for attempts at evasion.

Maybe next year we won't do another 50% on what they have left.

Re: CEOs’ pay climbed before layoffs at tech giants like Alphabet and Microsoft

#120

Post by pravus » Sat, Aug 05, 2023, 11:52 PM UTC

opportune wrote: post #71

melenaboija wrote: post #26

> Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai was awarded compensation worth more than $225 million in 2022 I know this has been discussed here and 225MM is like the salary of 1000 employees making 200K for only one year, it is stock which is volatoile, that the salary of a CEO is impossible to measure, bla bla bla. But holy guacamole, whatever is the angle I look at it 225MM pear year does not make any f_ing sense to me and it is si…

If you are running something worth over $1 trillion that makes hundreds of billions of dollars per year it makes sense though, right? You can argue even a mediocre CEO could do ok, and I’d agree, but at the same time you could easily justify paying huge amounts of money to get a CEO who will only perform better by 1%/year. To me it’s really the size of the big tech companies that’s mind boggling. The fact companies t…

>If you are running something worth over $1 trillion that makes hundreds of billions of dollars per year it makes sense though, right?

But he isn't running it. He has legal control over it, but in terms of sweat equity he only gets 24 hours in the day like everyone else and you can't tell me he somehow converts that to 1000x the labor of an average, capable, willing, working employee.