A new report from researchers at Equilar shows that CEO compensation grew at major tech companies right before thousands of company employees were laid off. The heads of Alphabet and Microsoft saw significant increases in their salaries right before job cuts occurred. The CEOs of Meta, Uber, and Salesforce also received slightly greater compensation before the companies laid off employees. Increases in CEOs’ pay, while jobs are cut, are a growing trend in the tech industry, as CEO compensation is linked to stock awards, and laying off employees can help protect the company’s health. Many laid-off workers have expressed frustration and disappointment with this news, stating that it sends the message that CEOs’ don’t put employees over profit.
See "Research data shows that increases in CEO compensation at large tech companies preceded mass layoffs", Max Zahn, ABC News, August 7, 2023