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Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai was awarded compensation worth more than $225 million in 2022, which marked a staggering 3,474% increase from the previous year, maki

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai was awarded compensation worth more than $225 million in 2022, which marked a staggering 3,474% increase from the previous year, making him the nation’s highest-paid CEO, according to Equilar data. There’s a whole rabbit hole to go down, but CEO compensation is not well defined. In this case it’s likely that Pichai was granted options with a multiyear vesting schedule, plus perhaps performance targets, and the entire net present value is being counted for 2022. Meanwhile he likely vested substantial options in 2021, but since it was granted in a prior year it’s not counted as compensation in that year. This kind of accounting makes for extremely lumpy numbers and the evergreen opportunity to write articles about 3400% increases!!1! I don’t think it’s a particularly useful way to think about executive compensation and we shouldn’t pay attention to such articles.

one_level_deep 3y ago
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HDThoreaun 3y ago
I disagree. Yes we should think about option grants differently, but not that differently. At the end of the day I don't think anyone would say Sundar has been that much better than his replacement level CEO. Certainly not better enough to deserve 225 million in equity. The stock is up 10% this year, still below 2021 levels.
- bradleyjg 3y ago
  Do you think he “actually” earned less than one million in 2021? Because that’s what accepting this framing means. Did his pay actually increase? We don’t know. Maybe I’m an odd duck, but I expect journalists to journalist.
  - ztrww 3y ago
    Depends how you measure “earning”. If we look at Google’s stock price and growth in relation to its competitors he possibly cost significantly more money to the company than he was paid.
- anurag6892 3y ago
  why should he be better than replacement level CEO? why can't we assume 225 million is what an average CEO running a Google sized company deserves? Like how we accept 300-500K is what an average Google SWE deserves?

one_level_deep 3y ago

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HDThoreaun 3y ago

I disagree. Yes we should think about option grants differently, but not that differently. At the end of the day I don't think anyone would say Sundar has been that much better than his replacement level CEO. Certainly not better enough to deserve 225 million in equity. The stock is up 10% this year, still below 2021 levels.

bradleyjg 3y ago
Do you think he “actually” earned less than one million in 2021? Because that’s what accepting this framing means. Did his pay actually increase? We don’t know. Maybe I’m an odd duck, but I expect journalists to journalist.
- ztrww 3y ago
  Depends how you measure “earning”. If we look at Google’s stock price and growth in relation to its competitors he possibly cost significantly more money to the company than he was paid.
anurag6892 3y ago
why should he be better than replacement level CEO? why can't we assume 225 million is what an average CEO running a Google sized company deserves? Like how we accept 300-500K is what an average Google SWE deserves?