Why Won't Google Raise Worker Pay To Match Inflation?

Google told its employees it will not be raising pay to match inflation when the topic was addressed Tuesday in a virtual meeting, CNBC reported.

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai discussed the 7% inflation in the U.S. and that some companies are raising employee salaries to cover inflation, asking if Google planned to follow suit. Google's vice president of compensation Frank Wagner responded by saying it won’t introduce companywide salary adjustments while acknowledging the significance of inflation.

“As I mentioned previously in other meetings, when we see price inflation increasing, we also see increases in the cost of labor or market pay rate,” Wagner said. “Those have been higher than in the recent past and our compensation budgets have reflected that.”

Wagner says the company wants to adjust worker pay based on performance. The company released a statement saying employees receive a yearly bonus, benefits, flexibility and equity as part of their total compensation.

One of the top employee questions at Google’s last all hands meeting was whether or not they’d get raises to match inflation. https://t.co/BrpQd97FsN
— Steve Kovach (@stevekovach) December 9, 2021

Enough employee concern made it a top discussion topic.
"With the U.S. inflation rates being as high has 7%, some companies are doing blanket salary adjustment to cover just the inflation,” Pichai reading the question aloud. “Is there any plans for Google to do the same thing?”
— Jennifer Elias (@jenn_elias) December 9, 2021