Google Employees That Opt to Work-From-Home Could Experience 5% Up to 25% Pay Cut

Urian B., Tech Times 10 August 2021, 11:08 am

Work from home Google employees could experience a 5% to 25% pay cut. Google has now rolled out its new internal calculator to explain possible pay cuts to employees that choose to work from home.

Google Employees Working from Home to Receive Pay Cut

The company reportedly plans to penalize those suburban staffers over employees that decide to work remotely from cities where the Google offices are already located, according to a report by Reuters. The calculator shows that Google employees that commuted an hour to Google's official Manhattan offices from somewhere nearby Stamford Conn., would have their salaries slashed by 15% should they choose to work from home.

In contrast, Googlers that live within NYC's very own five boroughs and decide to work at home permanently won't actually experience any pay cuts. Reuters obtained screenshots that showed 5% and 10% differences for computers living in Seattle, Boston, and even San Francisco areas. Google had just opened its first ever retail store in New York last June 2021.

Google Employees Receive Up to 25% Pay Cut

Google employees that move further away from the company's offices have been given a warning that they could potentially face harsher pay cuts. A worker that left San Francisco for Lake Tahoe, another particularly expensive area within California, would then have their pay cut by 25%!

According to the New York Post story, employees with a $150,000 salary would then make about less than $112,000 a year. The calculator also states that it uses the US Census Bureau metropolitan statistical areas, or CBSAs like Stamford, Conn., for example, is not really within the New York CBSA despite numerous people living there working in New York.

Does Google Have to Roll Out Pay Cut?

The news of this Google tool comes when there is a broader debate within tech companies regarding remote work and compensation. Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn have noted that employees planning to leave cities that are expensive, like San Francisco and New York, will receive pay slashes.

Other smaller tech companies, just like Zillow and Reddit, note that they will pay the exact same despite where their employees live. A sociology professor at the Washington University in St. Louis, Jake Rosenfield, who researches pay determination, noted that Google's pay structure actually raises alarms regarding who will actually feel the impacts, including families.

Remotely Working for Google

Rosenfeld notes that Google doesn't really have to do this and that Google has technically paid its workers 100% of their wage before this, by definition. As of the moment, it's unlikely that they can't afford to pay their own workers who would choose to work remotely the same they previously used to.

Google is a company with 140,000 employees around the world. The company took a massive $61.9 billion revenue during Q2 of 2021 but did not immediately reply to The Post or Reuters. Google even earned more than Microsoft during Q1 of 2021.

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Written by Urian B.