Google exec earns so much cash, he can’t even tell you how much

WHEN a parliamentary committee asked this rich executive how much he earns in a year, his response left jaws hanging.

THE rich really are different — especially if they work at Google.

The tech giant’s European boss, Matt Brittin, didn’t know the size of his own salary when he was getting grilled by British politicians over Google’s alleged tax avoidance.

“It’s a salary, ah, I don’t have the figure,” the squirming exec told a parliamentary committee.

The Thursday hearing was called after Google parent Alphabet Inc. agreed late last month to pay $185 million in taxes going back to 2005 after an audit by the UK’s version of the IRS.

Plenty of Britons were outraged over the “sweetheart” deal for the Mountain View, California-based company, which has been criticised across Europe for taking advantage of tax loopholes.

While attempting to defend the deal, Brittin claimed to “understand the anger” of everyday people who feel the company isn’t paying its fair share of taxes. Some reports have pegged its corporate tax rate at just three per cent.

Meg Hiller, the committee chair, expressed her doubts that he did understand the public outrage and asked to know what he got paid.

“I’ll happily disclose that if that is a relevant matter to the committee,” he said.

Hiller continued to press him: “I’m asking you, so it’s a relevant matter, can you tell me what you get paid please, Mr Brittin?”

“I don’t have the figure, but I’ll happily provide it,” he said.

“You don’t know what you get paid, Mr Brittin?” Hiller said, drawing laughter in the room.

The pay for top tech execs tends to be heavily skewed toward stock grants and options, with some even forgoing a base salary.

Brittin’s salary isn’t disclosed in the company’s regulatory filings, which means he could be a multi-millionaire and still not rank among the company’s highest-paid execs.

Hiller cut him some slack and asked if he could just ballpark his base salary without getting into his stock options.

Even so, a sheepish-looking Brittin stammered that he didn’t have the number, adding: “I’ll provide the figure privately if it is relevant for the committee to understand my salary.”

But Hiller wasn’t having it.

“My point is out there taxpayers, our constituents, are very angry. They live in a different, clearly, to the world that you live in if you can’t even tell us what you actually get paid,” she said.

“I wonder if you have tin ears that you can’t hear this.”