Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai received a total compensation of about $226 million in 2022, which is more than 800 times the median employee’s pay, according to a securities filing by the company.
The pay disparity comes at a time when Alphabet has been cutting jobs globally, with plans to cut 12,000 jobs around the world in January.
Early this month, hundreds of Google employees staged a walkout at the company’s London offices following a dispute over layoffs, and in March, Google employees staged a walkout at the company’s Zurich offices after over 200 workers were laid off.
Despite this, Google is making strides in the AI technology sector with its new generative chatbot Bard, which can code in 20 programming languages, including Java, C++, and Python.
The bot can also help users debug and explain code while also optimizing it to make it faster or more efficient.
Although Bard is currently accessible only to a small set of users, the company is hopeful that the chatbot can help people write code to develop software more effectively.
The pay disparity highlighted by Sundar Pichai’s compensation is an issue that has plagued the tech industry for a long time, with many CEOs earning significantly more than their employees.
Nonetheless, companies like Alphabet are taking steps towards creating innovative technologies like Bard, which could help revolutionize the software development industry.
In other tech news, Xiaomi recently launched its camera-focused flagship Xiaomi 13 Ultra smartphone, while Apple opened its first stores in India this week.
These developments, along with other reports on smartphone-related rumors, are discussed on the Gadgets 360 podcast, Orbital.