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Google cuts remote work wages
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Google employees based in the same office before the pandemic could see different changes in pay if they switch to working from home permanently, with long commuters hit harder, according to a company pay calculator.
It is an experiment taking place across Silicon Valley, which often sets trends for other large employers. Facebook and Twitter also cut pay for remote employees who move to less expensive areas, while smaller companies including Reddit and Zillow have shifted to location-agnostic pay models, citing advantages when it comes to hiring, retention and diversity.
Alphabet Inc鈥檚 Google stands out in offering employees a calculator that allows them to see the effects of a move. But in practice, some remote employees, especially those who commute from long distances, could experience pay cuts without changing their address.
鈥淥ur 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,鈥 a Google spokesperson said, adding that pay will differ from city to city and state to state. One Google employee, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation, commutes to the Seattle office from a nearby county and would likely see their pay cut by about 10 percent by working from home full-time, according estimates by the company鈥檚 Work Location Tool launched in June.
The employee was considering remote work but decided to keep going to the office 鈥 despite the two-hour commute.
鈥淚t鈥檚 as high of a pay cut as I got for my most recent promotion. I didn鈥檛 do all that hard work to get promoted to then take a pay cut,鈥 they said.
Jake Rosenfeld, a sociology professor at Washington University in St. Louis who researches pay determination, said Google鈥檚 pay structure raises alarms about who will feel the impact most acutely, including families.
鈥淲hat鈥檚 clear is that Google doesn鈥檛 have to do this,鈥 Rosenfeld said.
鈥淕oogle has paid these workers at 100 percent of their prior wage, by definition.
鈥淪o it鈥檚 not like they can鈥檛 afford to pay their workers who choose to work remotely the same that they are used to receiving.鈥
Screenshots of Google鈥檚 internal salary calculator show an employee living in Stamford, Connecticut 鈥 an hour from New York City by train 鈥 would be paid 15 percent less if they worked from home, while a colleague from the same office living in New York City would see no cut from working from home.
Screenshots showed 5 percent and 10 percent differences in the Seattle, Boston and San Francisco areas.
Interviews with Google employees indicate pay cuts as high as 25 percent for remote work if they left San Francisco for an almost as expensive area elsewhere in the state such as Lake Tahoe.
The calculator states it uses US Census Bureau metropolitan statistical areas.
Stamford, Connecticut, for example, is not in New York City鈥檚 CBSA, even though many people who live there work in New York.
A Google spokesperson said the company will not change an employee鈥檚 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, for example.
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