[QuarterReptile]

The correct analogy is sports, so if you're comparing CEO pay to salaried SWEs rather than European football stars, you're going to distract yourself.

Team Google is a juggernaut with the funds to match, so they see value in putting up the money to get the top performer. They don't care how much luck the guy had to get where he is or how fair the pay is. They operate at a scale where small performance gains mean huge impact, so getting the guy who can make things go well (or who is less likely to drive the whole org off a cliff) is a bargain at any price. And let's not pretend we all know how to be CEOs of giant companies.

[cudgy]

No one knows how to be CEO of a giant company until they do it, but there are many better qualified people that could perform that job for a whole lot less money. One could argue that taking such a huge pay increase immediately before laying off thousands of people is an example of poor CEO decision making skills, resulting in a loss of goodwill to the employees and potential future hires. The temporary $99 a night hotel deal for employees is an equally vivid middle finger to employees.