New Salary Structure Might Cut Pay For Remote Workers & It Makes NO Sense
I happened stumble upon an article that had me in shock....so I decided to do some research.
There is talk that corporations like Google will be giving employees who choose to permanently work from home a pay cut.
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Um...what the, what THE, WHAT THE..?!?!
Okay before I rip this absurd statement apart, let's get into some of the details and the why behind it.
If I am understanding the article on MSN.com correctly, an employee choosing to permanently work from home would see a decrease in salary if they moved to a less expensive area farther away from the office during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Here is the example given at MSN.com: "For example, an employee who normally works at Google’s New York City office would not be penalized if they permanently worked from home in the Big Apple — but they would be paid less if they moved to North Carolina or Virginia and telecommuted."
And on top of it, the percentage of an employees' pay cut will depend on their' location.
In areas like Boston, Seattle and San Francisco, those who were working in person versus remotely have a pay gap ranging from 5% to 10%.
Meanwhile, "an employee living in Stamford, Connecticut - an hour from New York City by train - would be paid 15% less if she worked from home," according to Reuters.com.
Okay, now that you have enough information to understand what is going on, I just have to say... what the, WhAt ThE, WHAT THE ACTUAL....?!?!?!
Where an employee lives and the length of their commute (or lack their of) has absolutely nothing to do with their qualifications to get a job done.
Now don't get me wrong, cost of living is 10000% a factor. Someone living in New Jersey could never live on $25K a year.
But let me make my point with a situation I was in years ago with a previous boss of mine.
I was his marketing gal. I took care of the email campaigns, social media and creating worthy content for his sites. He tried to argue that should not make over a certain wage per hour because I could get articles done in 30 minutes or less.
Slow....your.....roll......homie.......
I went to school. I've written for magazines, newspaper outlets and broadcasting companies for years to practice my journalism skills. I have also sat down for one-on-one reviews to improve.
That experience and hard work that took YEARS for me to be able to write quality pieces in 30 minutes or less is what he was paying for.
And that idea should apply to all other jobs.
Where you live, how long you have to drive to and from work or anything else other than your experience and qualifications are irrelevant.
Do you have a reliable and top-notch employee?
Do they have the education and/or the skills to do the job at hand?
Can they still do their job well when they work remotely?
Then leave their pay alone. The salary is based on the job at hand and what that employee had to do to become qualified. Not where they live.
Clearly, the COVID-19 Pandemic pushed the technological boundaries big time. Companies were forced to adapt so that employees can get their jobs done from home.
This became possible because of tech companies JUST LIKE GOOGLE.
Now, everyone has all the knowledge they could need at their fingertips.
Things like communication among employees, email, spreadsheets, staff meetings via video chat, fact checking, social media...and the list goes on and on... is now readily available to everyone.
The work from home set up is possible because of tech companies JUST LIKE GOOGLE! Ironic...isn't it?
But now you are going to punish your employees for those same advances?
Get outta here with that.....
To me, it feels like these companies are trying to find another way to make even more money. The problem? It is coming out of their employees' pockets.
The gap between the rich and the poor continues to widen...and it is because of decisions just like this.
LEAVE. THE. PAY. ALONE.
And if you are looking to cut expenses, maybe stop leasing so many offices since these spaces are not as needed as we thought?
Just a thought.
Here are the sources used for this article: Source 1, Source 2, Source 3.
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