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Microsoft has released new compensation statistics in observation of National Equal Pay Day (April 12), revealing that women working for the Redmond, Wash.-based tech titan practically get paid the same as men.
“Today, for every $1 earned by men, our female employees in the U.S. earn 99.8 cents at the same job title and level,” Kathleen Hogan, executive vice president of human resources at Microsoft, wrote in a blog post. A year and a half ago, women earned 99.7 cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts, she noted, adding that the latest figures “reflect our commitment to equal pay for equal work” and that the company will continue to champion equal pay.
“Racial and ethnic minorities in the U.S. combined earn $1.004 for every $1 earned by their Caucasian counterparts,” continued Hogan. “Breaking it down even further, African American/black employees are at $1.003; Hispanic/Latino(a) employees are at 99.9 cents; and Asian employees are at $1.006 for every $1 earned by Caucasian employees at the same job title and level, respectively.”
National Equal Pay Day began in 1996 as a public awareness event. In the decades since, the gender wage gap still affects companies across the globe, according to a recent study from Glassdoor. In its survey of 8,000 adults across seven countries, the workplace review site found that nearly every U.S. adult (93 percent) agrees that women should make as much as men for similar levels of experience and work.
What’s more, companies that don’t promote their fair-pay policies or are perceived to perpetuate gender-based pay imbalances may find it tough to find qualified candidates. Glassdoor’s data indicates that 67 percent of U.S. employees will not apply for a job if they believe a wage gap exists. Eighty-one percent of women will flat-out refuse to apply for a position at an unfair workplace.
In March, an analysis of the annual salaries of 16,000 technology professionals prompted Bob Melk, president of Dice.com, to state that “[gender] plays no role in compensation for technology professionals” when accounting for education levels, experience and job title.
The IT career Website discovered that men were awarded more bonuses than women in 2015 (38 percent versus 34 percent) and took home a bigger bonus check ($10,420 versus $8,899). “On the surface it appears there’s a divide, but control for those factors mentioned earlier and the gap disappears,” Melk said in a statement.
Microsoft is joined by another tech heavyweight in its efforts to draw attention to wage equality.
“We regularly review our compensation practices to ensure pay equity, and have done so for many years,” Lori Goler, Facebook’s head of human resources, wrote in an April 11 post on the social network. “We complete thorough statistical analyses to compare the compensation of men and women performing similar work. I’m proud to share that at Facebook, men and women earn the same.”
As of Dec. 31, Facebook employs nearly 12,700 workers across several international locations, from its Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters to Dubai, Paris, Sydney and dozens of other cities worldwide.