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Microsoft CEO Suggests Women Shouldn’t Ask for Pay Raises

HeadlineOct 10, 2014

The CEO of Microsoft has sparked controversy by suggesting women should not ask for pay raises. Speaking at a gathering of women in computing, Satya Nadella responded to a question about how he would advise women who are uncomfortable asking for a raise.

Satya Nadella: “It’s not really about asking for the raise, but knowing and having faith that the system will actually give you the right raises as you go along. And that, I think, might be one of the additional superpowers that, quite frankly, women who don’t ask for a raise have, because that’s good karma: It’ll come back, because somebody’s going to know that’s the kind of person that I want to trust.”

Following an outcry over his remarks, Nadella tweeted that he had been “inarticulate.” Women make up just 17 percent of Microsoft’s technical, engineering and management staff, roughly equivalent to other big tech firms. Nadella earns an estimated $18 million a year as CEO.

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