Microsoft CEO to women: Not asking for pay raise is ‘good karma’
Microsoft’s CEO has said that it’s “good karma” for women not to ask for a pay raise, but to “trust the system” to eventually reward them. His comment was met with a storm of criticism and sarcasm, which forced the executive to backtrack on his words.
The CEO, Satya Nadella, was speaking at a gathering of women
technologists in Phoenix, Arizona, on Thursday, when he was asked
for an advice on what he believed was the right way for women to
ask for a pay raise.
"It's not really about asking for the raise, but knowing and
having faith that the system will actually give you the right
raises as you go along," Nadella said.
"Because that's good karma," he said. "It'll come
back because somebody's going to know that's the kind of person
that I want to trust."
One of the hosts of the event, Maria Klawe, the president of
Harvey Mudd College and a Microsoft director, immediately
challenged Nadella, by saying that his comment was "one of
the very few things” she disagreed with him on.
Before long, Nadella, who took over at Microsoft CEO in February
2014, felt himself obliged to admit on Twitter the “karma
comment” was an “inarticulate” answer to a pay
raise question.
Was inarticulate re how women should ask for raise. Our industry must close gender pay gap so a raise is not needed because of a bias #GHC14
— Satya Nadella (@satyanadella) October 9, 2014
Eventually he apologized for being “completely wrong” in an
email to employees, which Microsoft has made
public.
“I believe men and women should get equal pay for equal
work,” Nadella said in the email. “And when it comes to
career advice on getting a raise when you think it’s deserved,
Maria’s advice was the right advice. If you think you deserve a
raise, you should just ask.”
Despite the Microsoft CEO’s quickly backtracking on his words,
the online community has been prolific in sarcastic comments on
the “karma advise,” from suggestions Microsoft should
better rely on karma in their pricing policy to assuming women
with good karma reincarnate as men and then are finally able to
ask for a raise.
"I became CEO by not asking for a raise, but trusting karma and having faith in the system." - Said no CEO ever
— Brian Solis (@briansolis) October 10, 2014
look guise...maybe @satyanadella meant that the good women who don't ask for raises will reincarnate as men...who get those raises #karma
— mothra (@marthakelly) October 10, 2014
Trust karma, let people pay whatever they want for MS products // @NYMag: Microsoft CEO to women: Don't ask for a raise.Trust karma instead!
— Bill Corbett (@BillCorbett) October 10, 2014
Nadella’s words have struck a sensitive chord with the public, as
the discrepancy in salaries women and men get is notable. US
women received 78 percent of what equally qualified men received
in 2013, according to research by the American Association of
University Women, cited by Reuters.
One person who probably doesn’t need to ask for a pay raise is
Nadella himself. His salary as Microsoft CEO is $1.2 million a
year, the website IT Pro reported in February. He will also be
eligible for a cash bonus of $3.6 million, the website reported,
citing Microsoft’s statutory 8K filing.
