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Googlers angry about CEO’s $226M pay after cuts in perks and 12,000 layoffs

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Re: Googlers angry about CEO’s $226M pay after cuts in perks and 12,000 layoffs

#21

Post by segasaturn »

While I agree that CEOs are overpayed, I think the same applies to software engineers. Software Engineering has been a pay/perk bubble for years that was due for a correction, and like when Elon cut the free gourmet lunches and coffees for Twitter staff, I'm sure the Google engineers will survive.

Meanwhile Google's "raters", the army of workers who do the hard work of moderating and testing Google's platforms are getting paid crumbs in comparison: https://www.npr.org/2023/03/25/1166059832/googles-ghost-work...

Re: Googlers angry about CEO’s $226M pay after cuts in perks and 12,000 layoffs

#22

Post by atleastoptimal »

jimsimmons wrote: post #7

Hating capitalism is one thing. Being clueless how it works is childish. 200M over 3 years for the CEO of the most consequential tech company on the planet is peanuts. Pop artists make similar money scantily clad and squeezing autotune

It's not the most consequential because of him. It was at that level when he got the job. Should the comp, in terms of who deserves the most money, go to the guy on top, or to the employees in proportion to their contribution?

CEO pay ratio is fucked in the US in any realm. It's just because those at the top have more leverage, they don't necessarily have more value.

Re: Googlers angry about CEO’s $226M pay after cuts in perks and 12,000 layoffs

#24

Post by fshbbdssbbgdd »

justrealist wrote: post #18
gregdoesit wrote: post #11

Got to give it to Larry Page and Sergey Brin for having their cake and also eating it. They control ~51% of voting power with shares thanks to owning ~85% of class B shares. They have had the benefit of someone else running the company for 8 years - and increasing the value of it - and now, when things are not looking great, it’s Sundar Pichai who gets the blame, and the focus on his compensation: and not those who s…

Not sure I'm following. They aren't getting new equity grants, they're de-facto out of the picture and just riding the valuation. They have 51% voting power but it's not obvious they are actively making decisions, rather than just holding onto power in just-in-case. Sundar is getting new equity grants based on his "performance". That's not the same.

Larry and Sergey hired Sundar to do a job (make money for shareholders aka Larry and Sergey). If Sundar doesn’t want to do that job anymore they’ll find someone else to do it better.

If I’m ignoring morality and just pretending I own the company and want to be richer, my opinion would be: if I think there is someone out there who will do a better job than my CEO and they are available, hire them no matter how much it costs. Whatever I’m paying them is peanuts compared to their impact on the company’s market cap. Nowhere in my option space is “keep the same sub-par CEO but pay them less”, that’s penny-wise and pound-foolish thinking.

Re: Googlers angry about CEO’s $226M pay after cuts in perks and 12,000 layoffs

#25

Post by belval »

jimsimmons wrote: post #14
airstrike wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's whataboutism. Googlers are comparing their pay (and layoffs) to the CEO's comp--pop artists are an entirely separate matter and Googlers may also feel those are paid too much Said differently: I'm not saying they're right or wrong, just pointing out that they can also be upset over pop artists' pay

OpenAI is allegedly paying 5-20M for researchers. Shouldn’t CEO deserve 20x more? What motivation will Sundar have if you pay him 200K?

It's still extreme. I have no doubt that he works extremely hard but what are shareholders getting for a 226M$ compensation instead of a 100M$ one?

Re: Googlers angry about CEO’s $226M pay after cuts in perks and 12,000 layoffs

#26

Post by gregdoesit »

justrealist wrote: post #18
gregdoesit wrote: post #11

Got to give it to Larry Page and Sergey Brin for having their cake and also eating it. They control ~51% of voting power with shares thanks to owning ~85% of class B shares. They have had the benefit of someone else running the company for 8 years - and increasing the value of it - and now, when things are not looking great, it’s Sundar Pichai who gets the blame, and the focus on his compensation: and not those who s…

Not sure I'm following. They aren't getting new equity grants, they're de-facto out of the picture and just riding the valuation. They have 51% voting power but it's not obvious they are actively making decisions, rather than just holding onto power in just-in-case. Sundar is getting new equity grants based on his "performance". That's not the same.

Larry and Sergey have 51% voting power. They are the ones deciding how much Sundar is paid. Put it the other way: if they don’t want to pay him that much: they have the power to do so.

As the ultimate owners of the company by shareholder votes, they approved the compensation of Sundar, and are the decision makers.

Re: Googlers angry about CEO’s $226M pay after cuts in perks and 12,000 layoffs

#27

Post by airstrike »

jimsimmons wrote: post #14
airstrike wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's whataboutism. Googlers are comparing their pay (and layoffs) to the CEO's comp--pop artists are an entirely separate matter and Googlers may also feel those are paid too much Said differently: I'm not saying they're right or wrong, just pointing out that they can also be upset over pop artists' pay

OpenAI is allegedly paying 5-20M for researchers. Shouldn’t CEO deserve 20x more? What motivation will Sundar have if you pay him 200K?

The question isn't about motivation and you're comparing $5-20M to $0.2M when the argument is $200M is too much

The balanced answer then is to pay a CEO {something closer to $20M} and he will be motivated by {something closer to $20M} (plus their expectations of future comp).

Whether that's $20M or $40M or $60M or more is up for debate. Googlers are saying: "It's not $226M"

Re: Googlers angry about CEO’s $226M pay after cuts in perks and 12,000 layoffs

#28

Post by not2b »

jimsimmons wrote: post #14
airstrike wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's whataboutism. Googlers are comparing their pay (and layoffs) to the CEO's comp--pop artists are an entirely separate matter and Googlers may also feel those are paid too much Said differently: I'm not saying they're right or wrong, just pointing out that they can also be upset over pop artists' pay

OpenAI is allegedly paying 5-20M for researchers. Shouldn’t CEO deserve 20x more? What motivation will Sundar have if you pay him 200K?

There's a lot of room between 200k and 200M, and given that the company is laying people off and cutting costs, the CEO should share in that sacrifice.

Re: Googlers angry about CEO’s $226M pay after cuts in perks and 12,000 layoffs

#30

Post by rudyfink »

amir734jj wrote: post #3

Is $225M a lot for CEO of big corporation? I genuinely don't know. What is the average pay?

It is more than the profit (as listed by Fortune) of about 260 companies in the Fortune 1000: https://fortune.com/ranking/fortune500/2022/search/ . In other words, Fortune lists about 260 companies in the Fortune 1000 as having a profit of less than 225 million in 2022.
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