Facebook, Microsoft Claim They Offer Equal Pay to Women, Men

The technology industry has been the subject of criticism when it comes to choosing males over females in the workforce. This was shown in the figures released on Tuesday ahead of Equal Pay Day.

However, Lori Goler, Facebook's head of HR, said that Facebook reviews staff pay "regularly" for "many years" to ensure that both men and women are being paid equally.

"We complete thorough statistical analyses to compare the compensation of men and women performing similar work.  I'm proud to share that at Facebook, male and females earn the same," Goler said.

Facebook's workforce is made up of 32% or at least 12,000 female employees across the globe, according to CNN Money.

On the other hand, Microsoft revealed that females make about 99.8 cents for every dollar that a man makes. This is a cent higher when compared to a year and a half ago, when it was 99.7 cents to a dollar.

"I'm encouraged by these results," Kathleen Hogan, Microsoft's EVP of human resources wrote in a blog post. "Our announcement today is another step forward along the path of greater diversity and inclusion progress at Microsoft, and in society as a whole."

According to The Spec, Arjuna Capital has filed proposals with nine tech giants requesting them to help fight gender pay gaps and disclose salary information. Apple and Amazon already responded to the call earlier this year.

However, despite the closing of the gender pay gap, there is another issue that's being faced by the tech industry and that is males more likely to end up in higher-paying roles as compared to females.

"It's accurate for what it claims to be - a lack of a pay gap when looking at the same jobs - but it doesn't get at the broader issue of women being under-represented in these fields and leadership positions that are so crucial for setting the tone for the whole company," said Lisa Maatz, vice president at the American Association of University Women.

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