Google employees who were in the same office prior to the pandemic could see different salary changes when working from home all the time, with long commuters being more affected, according to a company’s wage calculator viewed by Reuters.
It’s an experiment that takes place across Silicon Valley and often sets trends for other large employers.
Facebook and Twitter are also slashing salaries for remote workers moving to cheaper areas, while smaller companies like Reddit and Zillow have moved to multi-location pay models, citing hiring, retention and diversity benefits.
Alphabet Inc.’s Google excels at offering employees a calculator that they can use to see the effects of moving. In practice, however, some remote workers, especially those who commute from great distances, could experience pay cuts without changing their address.
“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,” said a Google spokesman, adding that pay is city-to-city and state-to-state is different.
A Google employee who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation usually commutes to the Seattle office from a nearby county and, the company estimates, would likely cut his wages by about 10% if he worked full-time from works from home s Work Location Tool introduced in June.
The employee thought about working remotely, but decided to keep going to the office – despite the two-hour drive. “The pay cut is as big as my last promotion. I didn’t do all the hard work to get a promotion and then get a pay cut,” they said.
Jake Rosenfeld, a sociology professor at Washington University in St. Louis who studies wage determination, said Google’s pay structure is raising alarms about who will feel the impact the hardest, including families.
“It is clear that Google does not have to do that,” said Rosenfeld. “Google, by definition, paid these workers 100% of their previous wages. So it’s not that they can’t afford to pay their remote workers what they are used to.”
Screenshots of Google’s internal salary calculator, viewed by Reuters, show that an employee who lives in Stamford, Connecticut – an hour’s train ride from New York City – would be paid 15% less if she worked from home while a co-worker was The same office that lived in New York City would see no cut in working from home. Screenshots showed 5% and 10% differences in the Seattle, Boston, and San Francisco areas.
Interviews with Google employees indicate wage cuts of up to 25% for remote work if they left San Francisco for an area of the state almost as expensive as Lake Tahoe.
The calculator states that it is using the US Census Bureau or CBSAs metropolitan statistical areas. Stamford, Connecticut, for example, is not part of New York City’s CBSA, although many people who live there work in New York.
A Google spokesman said the company won’t change an employee’s salary if they move from office work to full remote work in the city where the office is located. According to the spokesman, employees who work in the New York City office are paid the same as those who work remotely in another location in New York City, for example.
Google hasn’t specifically addressed the problem for commuters from areas like Stamford, Connecticut.
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