I Earn the Same Amount as My Employees — and That’s OK
Growing up in the late ’80s and ’90s, I had a keen interest in computers and technology as a whole. A large credit is due to my dad, who is a bona fide electronics nerd.
Yet even with his loving support, I never saw a career in technology as attainable for me as a young girl. I pursued many other paths before eventually finding my way back to tech after graduate school.
As I grew older and pursued this dream, I started to encounter more and more barriers for me as a woman in the tech industry, even when I had more experience and subject-matter expertise than male counterparts.
Although some poor treatment came in the form of comments and “invisible” microaggressions, it also came in the form of compensation.
Yearning for Better
At my first tech job, I worked my way up from being a part-time, junior-level developer to being the lead developer, eventually supporting a team of three other developers. I loved that job.
Now the culture of that company was pretty opaque (i.e. the opposite of transparent). So I never knew how much other developers at the company were making.
But when I did some market research for similar jobs in our area, I discovered I was significantly underpaid for my position. So I asked for a raise.
Because I was working for a small, bootstrapped company, I understood that they may not be able to pay the same as larger, well-funded companies. But in reality, my salary wasn’t even on the curve. So I requested something “reasonable” on the lower end of the curve.
But here’s the thing: This was a 50% raise. Because my pay had started so low, my boss had been regularly bumping up my salary. But nothing on this scale. So I knew it was pretty cheeky to ask for such a big raise. Sadly, management thought so too and only gave me a 25% raise.
A few months later, I was recruited to be a CTO at a startup media nonprofit. When I moved on, one of the developers I oversaw was promoted to my position. During one of our transition conversations, I learned he was offered the amount I had previously requested and had been denied.
That was over six years ago.
And yes, the tech industry has been working to reduce the size of the gender pay gap in recent years, but it’s still pretty big.
As of 2020, men make over $16,000 more annually than women in tech, according to a report from Dice.
Think about it: An additional $16,000 in anyone’s pocket could dramatically alter their way of life. It could be the reason why they buy a house. Invest in a car. Go on a well-needed vacation. Pay off student loans.
So for someone to be paid that much less due to their gender is unacceptable.
A Commitment to Equity
At Unity Web Agency, we truly believe in the mission that all Certified B Corporations aim to uphold: Using our business as a force for good.
That’s why when I founded Unity in 2016, I did so with the plan of becoming a B Corp as soon as possible. Our mission is to make the internet inclusive, one website at a time. We build accessible and sustainable websites for nonprofits and socially responsible businesses.
So when people hear the phrase “using our business as a force for good,” the first things that typically come to mind are:
- Our mission.
- The environment.
- The economy.
- The way we go about business.
And all of that would be correct. At Unity, we make sure that we minimize our footprint on our planet, pay it forward to our community, and are transparent with our business approach.
But it’s not just that.
When using our business as a force for good, we also apply this internally. It’s important to me that Unity is actually good for the people who choose to join our team.
As a small, bootstrapped business, I knew that paying my team the salary they deserved would be one of my biggest challenges. Because of my own experiences, I also knew what it felt like to be underpaid.
I wanted to establish a new precedent for my team. Inspired by Buffer, we started by implementing an open salary index, which calculated pay based on job duties, responsibility, and experience. It was my attempt to be transparent in our compensation and decrease pay disparities based on negotiation skills.
But over the years, it became clear to me that responsibility and experience are pretty subjective. As a small team, everybody has to pull their own weight and bears a significant responsibility for the company’s success. And as far as experience goes, how do we determine “junior,” “intermediate,” and “advanced”?
In the end, we still had pay disparities that didn’t feel right, given our values.
Making the Change
Unity has a strong commitment to diversity, and we have a roster of team members from different backgrounds.
We’re also well aware that pay gaps don’t just exist based on gender. There are big discrepancies in pay due to race and ethnicity, age, and sexual orientation.
So we took a big step forward in 2020 (in the midst of “The Big Quar”) and decided to eliminate pay differences once and for all. A person should be paid based on their employment status with the company — and that’s it.
That means our lead web developer and our project manager both make the same amount of money. And our part-time employees make the same hourly rate equivalent as our full-time salaried employees.
And yes, that also means that I — the CEO — also make the same amount of money that my employees make.
Despite being the founder and CEO, I am not the sole reason why Unity is a success. I’ve worked hard to build our team with people who not only are great at what they do but also believe in the mission Unity is striving for.
The people around me — now and before — are part of the reason why Unity is where it is and where it will go in the future.
Actually making the change took a lot of math, but in the end we have a pretty simple formula to determine the hourly equivalent of our level pay rate.
When we meet company goals, we do so as a team. And when we get rewarded for our efforts, we do so as a team.
With that in mind, it’s a no-brainer to implement an equal pay policy, and it’s something I hope to see more companies doing in the coming years.
B The Change gathers and shares the voices from within the movement of people using business as a force for good and the community of Certified B Corporations. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the nonprofit B Lab.
