Top Alphabet/Google Execs Get Salary Boosts, Stock Awards

The compensation boosts come after Alphabet’s stock climbed 65 percent in 2021 for the year’s best big tech performance.

Google parent company Alphabet rewarded top executives with hefty salary bumps and stock awards after the strongest year for the technology company’s stock since 2009.

Alphabet and Google chief financial officer Ruth Porat, Google senior vice president Prabhakar Raghavan, Google chief business officer Philipp Schindler and Kent Walker, global affairs president and chief legal officer of Alphabet and Google, saw their annual base salaries increase from $650,000 to $1 million effective this month, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing posted online yesterday. The executives also will be eligible for up to $2 million annual bonuses each if Google meets certain social and environmental goals this year.

Google could not immediately be reached for comment.

Alphabet’s stock climbed 65 percent in 2021 for the year’s best big tech performance, and the Mountain View, Calif.-based company’s market capitalization eclipsed $2 trillion for the first time last November.

The Alphabet board’s Leadership Development and Compensation Committee also approved performance-based and restricted stock awards for Porat, Raghavan -- who leads Google Search, Assistant, Geo and Ads and Google’s commerce and payments products -- Schindler and Walker that will vest over time.

Raghavan and Schindler each will be granted $12 million in performance-based stock that will vest, if at all, based on Alphabet’s total shareholder return performance compared to other S&P 100 companies from 2022 to 2024. They also will receive an additional $23 million each in restricted stock that will vest over 12 quarters beginning March 25. Porat and Walker each will be granted $5 million in performance-based stock and $18 million in restricted stock.

Alphabet hasn’t disclosed the total compensation awarded to the four executives in 2021, but a proxy statement filed with the SEC last April indicates Schindler topped the list in 2020, earning more than $66.38 million in salary, stock awards and other compensation, which included $215,660 for personal use of aircraft chartered by the company.

The compensation increases for the Alphabet and Google executives come after CNBC reported in December that Google would not enact companywide salary increases to address employee concerns about rising inflation and instead would stick to performance-based pay increases.

Alphabet’s revenue and earnings in the third quarter -- the latest quarterly report available -- easily beat analysts’ consensus estimates on broad-based strength in advertiser spending and elevated consumer online activity as well as a strong contribution from Google Cloud.

Revenue rose 41 percent to $65.12 billion for the three months that ended Sept. 30, 2021, compared to $46.17 billion in the same period last year. Net income reached $18.94 billion, or $27.99 in earnings per share (EPS), from $11.25 billion, or $16.40 EPS, in last year’s third quarter.