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Google Founders Cut Salaries to $1

Posted by Zonk on from the good-and-evil dept.

GeneralCern writes "MSNBC Reports that Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and CEO Eric Schmidt all slashed their salaries to $1 last year. Since you do not have to pay FICA, Medicare, or income taxes on the capital gains associated with stock sales, they stand to substantially decrease their tax burden. Is this a breach of the company's "do no evil" mission statement, or just an example of people who love their jobs so much they don't need to be paid to go to work?" Update: 04/09 13:11 GMT by H :And don't trust the above tax lines; it all depends on how sales are done; moreover when you are worth X amount with stock, I suspect the "tax burden" of what is, relatively speaking, a salary that's small compared to networth isn't a substantial impact. Sorry folks; poor story.

3 of 652 comments (clear)

  1. It's not like they're starving. by Fyz · · Score: 5, Informative

    Sergey Brin is, according to Forbes, already worth $7.2B. Wouldn't it be great to be so incredibly rich that you did'nt have to worry about personal income ever again?

    Anyway, this is PR that's probably worth way more than the salary itself. Steve Jobs does the same thing, IIRC.

  2. If a $1 Salary Makes Google Evil... by WhatAmIDoingHere · · Score: 5, Informative

    Apple has been evil for a few years.

    --
    Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
  3. Re:Minimum wage? by rudbek · · Score: 5, Informative

    Actually, it is has nothing to do with salary versus wages. It has do with whether the job description is exempt or non-exempt. Most managerial positions are exempt (meaning minimum wage/overtime etc. don't apply). Just because your paid by salary doesn't mean your not entitled under the law to overtime. Lots of white collar employees are incorrectly considered exempt by their employers. Unfortunately for Slashdot, sys admins by definition are non-exempt.

    Also - it is stupid to say that accepting one dollar is a tax avoidance scheme. Earning less is always and option but not a smart way to lower your tax bill. Refusing to accept a salary because 37% of it (or whatever the top rate is) will go to the IRS is sort of silly if you are trying to maximize your after tax salary. After all 63% of it (minus state income tax) is still yours. You have more not less by accepting the salary. I'd fire my accountant for coming up with a tax strategy that resulted in me having less money.