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Google Found it Paid Men Less Than Women For the Same Job (techcrunch.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: The story we're used to hearing is that women get paid less than men. In Google's case, according to its own internal pay audit, it turned out male-identified Level 4 Software Engineers received less money than women in that same role. That led to Google paying $9.7 million to adjust pay for 10,677 employees. It's not clear how many of the employees who received pay adjustments were men but Google does cite the underpaying of men as a reason for why the company paid more in adjustments for 2018 than in 2017. But The New York Times reports men received a disproportionately higher percentage of the money.

15 of 297 comments (clear)

  1. Does it matter? by war4peace · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Paying everyone the same amount for the same job reeks of communism. One person could be a better "Level 4 Software Engineer" than another. I've seen this time and again.

    --
    ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
    1. Re:Does it matter? by Darinbob · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's very often that people doing the exact same job will be in different pay grades. That's based upon your years of experience often, or how well you negotiated after the interview, or just based on whim (were they more desparate to fill that slot this year than they were in the past). It's only after the person is hired and has been working awhile that you learn that the high paid worker is actually less productive than the lower paid one, at which point it is very difficult to fix the situation.

    2. Re:Does it matter? by Hognoxious · · Score: 1, Insightful

      For suitably "larger breasted" values of "better".

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    3. Re:Does it matter? by uncqual · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Unfortunately, job descriptions rarely map cleanly to individuals, particularly those with exceptional skills in a few areas.

      I've known Software Engineers that had zero interest in being "leaders" or "architects" - perhaps because they eschewed conflict, were somewhat antisocial, didn't like being responsible for other peoples' work, or just didn't like doing that sort of work. However they were absolutely awesome at some particular aspect of their job such as having an unparalleled ability to track down and eradicate concurrency related heisenbugs which occur extremely rarely and leave core files that are quite inscrutable. These bugs can hold up releases by months, piss off Fortune 50 customers who have spent big bucks on your product, and harm the reputation of the company. Noticing and resolving them quickly (hopefully before Alpha) is generally far more important than any new feature in a release.

      There, unfortunately, often isn't a proper standard job description for such people but they can be the most valuable employee on your staff and almost impossible to replace and worth twice as much salary as the typical "conformant" Level X (who is striving to get to Level Y). They are not likely to be promoted because that puts them in a situation they would find untenable - for example, having to engage in conflict over designs - and be doing less of the more valuable work they love to do and are excellent at. These people tend to be stuck at Level X, get great bonuses every year, and end up at the top of their pay grade -- yet they are way underpaid compared to their actual contributions.

      --
      Why is there an "insightful" mod and why isn't it "-1"? If I wanted insight, I wouldn't be reading /.
    4. Re:Does it matter? by Shaitan · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Because it is a legitimate comment and not a redundant, troll, or flamebait. People who mod those down are doing so out of bias rather than valid criteria. "The people" who mod down both share the same bias and inability to tolerate comments which run counter to that bias.

  2. Uh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Google does cite the underpaying of men as a reason for why the company paid more in adjustments for 2018 than in 2017. But The New York Times reports men received a disproportionately higher percentage of the money.

    The point of an adjustment is to adjust the lower paid party disproportionately to the higher paid party. So what is the problem here? Oh, just looking for something to bitch about? Carry on then.

  3. Reality is.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Women are more likely to get a college degree (in the US anyway) and that has had a knock-on effect in job opportunities and futures for a huge number of US men.

    It's not really a surprise that women are starting to get paid more in some jobs. They can't get men into those jobs to begin with because more and more of them aren't getting the education they need to get there. So there's fewer people overall to compete for those jobs.

    1. Re:Reality is.... by geekmux · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Women are more likely to get a college degree (in the US anyway) and that has had a knock-on effect in job opportunities and futures for a huge number of US men.

      Are women (or men for that matter) also more likely to obtain an actual useful degree?

      Even a 100% college graduate rate isn't worth a shit if the end result is a nation full of social justice warriors who majored in transgender studies.

  4. Women Are Wonderful by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Oh sure now that the ladies are making more.

    Hilarious. Called the Women Are Wonderful effect.

    Both men and women treat women better across cultures as a result. So when women say they are being paid less, well women don't lie, so it must be true. When women are being paid more, who cares!

    Now we get to watch people who claim to be feminists in that they believe in treating women and men equally will not in any way whatsoever fight against women being paid more than men.

    1. Re:Women Are Wonderful by Shaitan · · Score: 1, Insightful

      "Now we get to watch people who claim to be feminists in that they believe in treating women and men equally will not in any way whatsoever fight against women being paid more than men."

      Of course not, after all it is only fair with all that special treatment men get.

    2. Re:Women Are Wonderful by Chas · · Score: 3, Insightful

      And remember.
      If you simply try to have a civil discussion, you're shut down as a misogynist who suffers from "male fragility".

      --


      Chas - The one, the only.
      THANK GOD!!!
  5. Re:Disproportionate? by Fly+Swatter · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The writer wanted the reader to wrongfully conclude that women were once again somehow slighted. Carefully chosen words to make it sound biased for click-bait purposes, I suppose.

  6. Wh told you feminists are for equality? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    They are called FEMInists for a reason.

    They are the exact opposite of the women who started the equality movement.

  7. Re:Supply and Demand? by grasshoppa · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Equality of outcomes is crazy, equality of opportunity is where energy should be focused...if needed. If you look at the feminist utopias of Iceland or Finland, you find a greater degree of gendered separation of work. Almost as if, when given the choice, men and women choose different professions.

    Of course, that kind of talk got Damour fired, so what do I know.

    --
    Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
  8. Re:Supply and Demand works! by Cederic · · Score: 3, Insightful

    No. The BBC was forced to reveal the salary of everybody earning above a certain amount, which revealed that the highest paid TV presenters were all men.

    The women complained, so a pay review was initiated. Top salaries got cut and people being underpaid got pay rises.

    More men than women got pay rises. For the record, 52% of the BBC appearing on TV are female and there's absolutely no fucking shortage of women wanting to get a job on TV.

    So it's not necessarily market supply/demand at all. It's far more likely to be anti-male bias, which is sadly increasingly apparent in all walks of life.