It is a practice that generates controversy. Google employees are paid differently whether they choose to work from home or not. Therefore, the American company has created a calculator. It allows estimating the salaries of employees according to their place of residence, indexed to the cost of living, reports Le Figaro, Tuesday.
Asked by Reuters, one employee, for example, explained that he had quit telecommuting because he was losing 10% of his salary. Therefore, you prefer to take two hours of daily commute to get to the seat in Seattle. “Our compensation has always been determined by location,” said a Google spokesperson.
The salary cuts caused by this practice would be variable. For example, a New York office worker who lives an hour by train in Stamford, Connecticut, would lose 15% of his or her salary if he teleworked. The drop can be up to 25% for a San Francisco office worker who lives near Lake Tahoe, which borders California and Nevada, more than 3 hours away.
Only employees who work for headquarters in San Francisco or New York and who telecommute from their home located in these metropolises would not lose salary, according to the calculator. “Google clearly doesn’t have to do this. By definition, they were paying these workers 100% of their salary, so there should be no problem in continuing to pay them the same compensation if they choose to telecommute. Said Jake Resenfeld, a sociology professor at Washington University in St. Louis.
Other companies, such as Facebook or Twitter, have also implemented similar measures, which vary depending on where an employee resides. A policy of wage discrimination that is contested. For its part, Google wants to promote a “hybrid” labor organization. The Californian giant said that of its 140,000 employees worldwide, 20% should opt for full-time telecommuting and 20% should request their transfer to another office in the firm.