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's 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.
"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 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, typically 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's Work Location Tool launched in
June.
The employee was considering remote work but decided to keep
going to the office - despite the two-hour commute. "It's as high of a pay
cut as I got for my most recent promotion. I didn't do all that hard work to
get promoted to then take a pay cut," they said.
Jake Rosenfeld, a sociology professor at Washington
University in St. Louis who researches pay determination, said Google's pay
structure raises alarms about who will feel the impacts most acutely, including
families.
"What's clear is that Google doesn't have to do
this," Rosenfeld said. "Google has paid these workers at 100 percent
of their prior wage, by definition. So it's not like they can't afford to pay
their workers who choose to work remotely the same that they are used to
receiving."
Screenshots of Google's internal salary calculator seen by
Reuters show that an employee living in Stamford, Connecticut - an hour from
New York City by train - would be paid 15 percent less if she 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 of the state such as Lake Tahoe.
The calculator states it uses US Census Bureau metropolitan
statistical areas, or CBSAs. Stamford, Connecticut, for example, is not in New
York City's CBSA, even though many people who live there work in New York.
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, for example, according to the spokesperson.
Google did not specifically address the issue for commuters
from areas such as Stamford, Connecticut.
© Reuters
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