Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai. image: Niall Kennedy | Flickr, under Creative Commons license

According to an SEC filing put out recently, the 2019 total compensation for Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai amounted to $281 million, 1,085 times more than Alphabet’s median employee compensation as reported by the company. The majority of the reported compensation comes from stock awards, some of which will be paid out over time contingent on certain fiscal targets. Other top-paid Alphabet executives in 2019 include Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Ruth Porat and former Chief Legal Officer David Drummond. Porat earned $664,000 last year as Drummond raked in $661,000, in contrast to 2018 where they both earned $47 million in compensation.

Pichai’s compensation consisted of $650,000 in annual base salary, which will rise to $2 million this year. Ruth Porat and David Drummond also earned a $650,000 base salary last year. Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the two famed Alphabet co-founders who stepped down from active roles at the company last year, each earned a symbolic $1. They each control shares in Alphabet that amount to tens of billions of dollars.

Another highly paid personnel at Alphabet is former CEO Eric Schmidt who continues to serve as a director and Technical Advisor to the company. He earned $3.4 million in 2019, all of it categorized as “other” compensation, that is neither from salary nor stock awards. Such a category of compensation usually refers to benefits company executives get as part of their compensation, be it security expenses, travel expenses, medical reimbursements, and so on.