Why is everyone surprised that a CEO is discouraging people from asking for raises?
The goal of many of today's top executives is to keep costs down while enriching themselves. This has been the case for three decades now. They don't want to pay out raises.
The CEO of Microsoft, Satya Nadella, told a conference filled with women and focused on women that:
"It's not really about asking for the raise," Nadella told the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing conference, held in Phoenix, "but knowing and having faith that the system will actually give you the right raises as you go along."
He added that "women who don't ask for raises" have a "superpower ... because that's good karma, that'll come back ... that's the kind of person that I want to trust."
An uproar ensued over his comments, but I'm scratching my head as to why anyone is shocked.
I think he spoke from an honest place.
Deep down he wants women and men not to ask. This just reflects how our corporate system has become skewed, especially since 1980.
"The ratio of CEO-to-worker pay has increased 1,000 percent since 1950, according to data from Bloomberg. Today Fortune 500 CEOs make 204 times regular workers on average, Bloomberg found. The ratio is up from 120-to-1 in 2000, 42-to-1 in 1980 and 20-to-1 in 1950."
Where once companies shared the wealth, executives now want to get as much as they can for themselves. After the meeting, he backed off his statement, writing in a tweet that:
Was inarticulate re how women should ask for raise. Our industry must close gender pay gap so a raise is not needed because of a bias #GHC14
Sorry Nadella, the fat cat's really out of the bag now..a bag that's been full of holes for a long time. We just pretend not to know, and are shocked when someone points the holes out.
So, let's get down to the more important point. Just because someone tells you not to ask for a raise doesn't mean you should listen to them, who ever the heck they are!
You have to ask, and push your case. This guy just doesn't want you to. So use your outrage at this guy to get what you deserve. If you don't ask you don't get. (Here's a column I did a while back with tips on asking for more money.)
Don't tell me its not easy, or you're afraid. Microsoft's CEO is counting on that!