Pay row | Google rejects staff wage rise before handing bosses HUGE salary boost

Google has courted controversy after increasing the salaries of its top executives, just weeks after the firm said it couldn’t give staff a pay rise.

As reported by The Verge, the tech and social media behemoth is upping the salaries of four of its chiefs from $650,000 to $1million (approx. £480,418 to £739,105, based on current exchange rates), according to an SEC filing seen by the publication.

Those in line for the pay increase are: CFO Ruth Porat, SVP Prabhakar Raghavan, SVP and Chief Business Officer Philipp Schindler, and President of Global Affairs and Chief Legal Officer Kent Walker. The group were also handed stock awards with target values in the millions of dollars, according to The Verge.

The move comes after the firm’s parent company Alphabet announced record profits in its fifth quarter in a row ($18.9 billion) and second straight quarter of record revenue ($65.1 billion) in October.