We're misusing the term contractor in this thread. There are about 130,000 TVCs at Google (Temps, Vendors, and Contractors) according to the article.

The overwhelming majority of those are vendors, who provide security, staff cafeterias, call centers, etc. A few thousand are temps, who do the same work as an FTE but on a fixed-term basis with a cap at 2 years. Temps are employees of a staffing agency like Adecco which rents them out to Google for a rate about 2-3x the hourly pay of the temp.

The number of actual contractors, who are self-employed and have contracts directly with Google, is just a few hundred. They likely do make more than many FTEs, at least lower-level ones.

Don't think so. It depends on the type of contractor. If you're independent, you might (although you don't get stock and stock is a sizable portion of an FTEs total comp) but if you're actually working for Accenture/Wipro/Infosys/etc.. and they send you to Google on a contract, most definitely not.