Business: Google to cut pay of staff working-from-home!
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Working-from-home? Then be ready for a pay-cut—Google, which recently extended pandemic restrictions until October 18, is setting a precedence for other IT companies to follow.
The search engine’ employees who switched to working-from-home (wfh) permanently due to the Covid-19 pandemic will have to make do with a pay cut, according to media reports.
Being a market leader, Google usually sets new trends for other IT majors in America’s Silicon Valley, and elsewhere, to follow. They are expected to introduce the pay cut measure as well.
Already, social media giants Facebook and Twitter have cut pay for their remotely-working staffers, particularly those moving to affordable neighborhoods.
Smaller firms, including Reddit and Zillow, shifted to location-agnostic pay models, citing advantages when it comes to hiring, retention, and diversity, the reports said.
Google has offered its employees a calculator that enables them to see how their location could impact pay. But in practice, some remote employees, especially those who commute from long distances, could experience pay cuts without even changing their addresses.
“Our compensation packages have always been determined by location, and we always pay at the top of the local market based on where an employee works from,” a spokesperson said, adding that pay will differ from city to city and state to state.
The reports cited an unnamed Google employee, who thought of switching to full-time wfh but still attended office, expected a pay cut by about 10%.
Generally, remotely-working Google employees will get anywhere between 5 percent and 25 percent pay cuts.
For arriving at a pay decision, the Google calculator used US Census Bureau Metropolitan Statistical Areas (CBSAs).
A Google spokesperson said the company will not change an employee’s salary based on them going from office work to being fully remote in the city where the office is located. Employees working in the New York City office will be paid the same as those working remotely from another New York City location.
