Google staff who work from home might see pay cut under corporate policy – reports
- Reference: 1628694071
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/08/11/google_home_workers_pay_cut_reports/
- Source link:
Or so says [1]Reuters , which refers to a Work Location Tool that Google gave to staff in June to calculate the potential wage implications of full-time remote working. This is concerning to staff, particularly those who commute long distances.
One Googler – who asked to remain anon for fear of retaliation – had travelled to the Seattle office from a nearby county in pre-pandemic times, but estimated a 10 per cent pay cut.
[2]
"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 were quoted as saying.
[3]
[4]
Indications from Google staffers are that pay could be shaved by as much as 25 per cent for remote workers who leave the San Francisco base and move to Lake Tahoe. In other reported examples, a Googler living in Stamford, Connecticut – an hour from the New York office – would be paid 15 per cent less if they opted to work from home permanently. There is also a 5-10 per cent difference between office and home work in the Seattle and Boston areas.
The Register has asked Google to comment on its worldwide policy and it told us: "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."
[5]
It added: "Our new Work Location Tool was developed to help employees make informed decisions about which city or state they work from and any impact on compensation if they choose to relocate or work remotely."
Joanne Frew, partner and UK head of employment within the legal advisory division at DWF Law, said in a statement to us: "With many businesses struggling it is unsurprising that they will be looking for ways to cut costs. However, implementing sweeping pay cuts for homeworkers is not without serious risk. The starting point is the employment contract. If employers wish to implement pay cuts for homeworkers this would constitute a change to terms and conditions, one employees are unlikely to agree to. Employers would need to go through a process to change terms and conditions and could expect to face serious challenges."
She added that employees would argue that home working reduces overheads for their employer, "and if productivity has not diminished a pay cut would seem arbitrary."
[6]
Google isn't on the breadline: in calendar Q2 it made an [7]operating profit of $19.36bn , more than three times the $6.383bn it reported in the corresponding quarter a year earlier.
In May, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said he anticipated just [8]one in five employees working from home when life returned to some semblance of normality – amid the lure of free staff meals, on-site gyms, and massage therapies. He reckoned around 60 per cent of staff had chosen to come back.
"Our campuses have been at the heart of our Google community and the majority of our employees still want to be on campus some of the time," he said. "Yet many of us would also enjoy the flexibility of working from home a couple of days a week, spending time in another city for part of the year, or even moving there permanently."
Around one fifth of the workforce would, he added, work permanently from home.
[9]Amazon delays return to office work until 2022 at the earliest
[10]Paperless office? 2.8 trillion pages printed in 2020, down by 14% or 450 billion sheets
[11]UK chancellor: Getting back to the altar of corporate dreams (the office) will boost young folks' careers
[12]Does the boss want those 2 hours of your free time back? A study says fighting through crowds to office each day hurts productivity
[13]Great reset? More like Fake Reset: Leaders need a reality check if they think their best staff will give up hybrid work
Just weeks ago, Google told staff they can work from home until October after it postponed the scheduled return to the office from mid-September. Some offices are open and staff can choose to go in or steer clear. Before any mass return, however, staff who choose to work from the office will need to be vaccinated.
Facebook has said the same, and Microsoft will require proof of vaccination from teamsters before they can return to campus the office. ®
Get our [14]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.reuters.com/world/the-great-reboot/pay-cut-google-employees-who-work-home-could-lose-money-2021-08-10/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YRP0MqNPwYYeeG8pI@NO4QAAAIc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YRP0MqNPwYYeeG8pI@NO4QAAAIc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YRP0MqNPwYYeeG8pI@NO4QAAAIc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YRP0MqNPwYYeeG8pI@NO4QAAAIc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YRP0MqNPwYYeeG8pI@NO4QAAAIc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/28/alphabet_q2_2021/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/06/google_retuen_to_office/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/06/amazon_covid_office/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/05/idc_pages_printed_in_2020/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/03/uk_chancellor_rishi_sunak_returning_to_office/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2021/04/26/commute_work_psychologist_study/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/28/the_fake_reset/
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Childcare
Correct. Their European HR people will be having kittens over this kind of policy. Probably seemed like such a smart idea in Mountain View.
After all, what motivates people better to do things they don't want to do than threatening to dock their pay if they don't comply?
Eejits.
Re: Childcare
Correct. I expect it would be classed as indirect discrimination in the UK.
WTF?!
"With many businesses struggling it is unsurprising that they will be looking for ways to cut costs." - What the Hell?!
The only way businesses are struggling right now is the lack of people willing to work customer-facing jobs for shite pay. Google is NOT one of those. Although, if they put this into effect, they may well become one.
I wonder if a well-placed VPN could report your tele-working place as Fisher Island (average income in 2018 of $2.2 million) and get a commensurate pay hike?
Re: WTF?!
From the quote you highlighted:
"With many businesses struggling it is unsurprising that they will be looking for ways to cut costs."
A huge rented office building which has to be maintained just so everyone can go there every morning and go back home every night must be known an investment, then.
Re: WTF?!
They want to cut true costs and use those savings to create fake costs and thus avoid paying tax.
Maybe Google CEOs want to go to space too and they need all the money they can get to buy the rocket fuel.
It is easier to take money from the workers than recover it from various tax avoidance schemes.
"reductions in pay for employees that [..] choose to work from home permanently"
No problem - they'll just work less hours to compensate.
Re: "reductions in pay for employees that [..] choose to work from home permanently"
Obligatory [1]Dilbert .
[1] https://dilbert.com/strip/2013-07-09
RE: work less - no joke required
Fundamentally they will happy expect you to be as productive as ever. While they cut your pay.
If they are paying me less for the work, then you should get less work. That's Fair Trade. Deal with it or pay me based upon my output, as you did before .
Yet more corporate scumbaggery brought to you by American Greed, Inc.
Absolute cunt's trick
Fuck them.
Re: Absolute cunt's trick
If Google are cutting peoples wages since they work from home and do not incur travelling costs, then this is just corporate greed at its best. They deny their workers the savings, despite their Q2 $19bn operating profit.
They can reduce building maintenance costs by downsizing, saving more money, yet seek to extract more from their workers. Disgusting.
I suppose the removal of "Don't be evil" from their code of conduct in 2018 has created a senior manager culture appropriate to the dystopian films of every decade.
Cost of housing and daycare
A single bedroom in a decent neighborhood: $3000/month
Childcare: $1200/month, higher.
Roughly $50k post taxes, $70k pretax income
Yearly income $200k.
Cost of an ordinary condo $1million in a good neighborhood.
Google on your resume: priceless.
I’d take a 30% cut and work remotely.
Re: Cost of housing and daycare
I mean you could buy a tent in Walmart and set yourself up at the beach for free. You could get 95% cut and still work remotely.
Detached
Oh those pesky workers, if only they could work for free. They are so lucky that we are letting them work at all...
Google and other companies should start paying workers extra for use of their home as office.
They are okay getting lavish properties and paying fortune to landlords. Perhaps it is much harder to do a tax fiddle when the worker does not have tax avoidance structure set up.
Campus
I’m glad to see El Reg striping that one out.
These incredibly arrogant , self regarding shits need to be brought down several pegs.
If you can afford it, resign and get a job with a company that holds it’s staff in decent esteem.
Retaliation against people who don't want to go back to the office.
There's another issue that needs to be considered for big IT, average tenure (which will be higher than the median) https://mobilemonkey.com/articles/employee-tenure-in-tech-companies
By the time of return to the office you're hitting the stage where average employees may have never worked in the office. That's not a return to office, it's being forced to go to an unfamiliar environment and start settling all over again. Some work practises are new and would need to change back in the office. I had over 7 hours of remote meetings yesterday, over 6 today. That wouldn't wash tethered to my desk, and it wouldn't be anything like the old days. May as well be at home.
Childcare
On the assumption that childcare is female-dominated, it seems likely that this policy structurally sexist