It’s pretty amazing to think that in this day and age there is still a major difference between levels of compensation for men and women. In a news release this afternoon, GoDaddy announced that the company “has joined the federal ‘Fair Pay Pledge’ aimed at closing the gender pay gap between men and women in the United States.”
Appropriately, the announcement of GoDaddy’s participation was made during The United State of Women Summit, which was held today in Washington, DC. Illustrating how important this event is, United States President Barack had a leading speaking role. In fact, it was President Obama who mentioned that there are 28 American companies who are taking a lead role in the Fair Pay Pledge, and GoDaddy is one of those companies.
It’s awesome to see GoDaddy being a leader in this effort. Not too long ago, the company was thought of as sexist by many, due to its provocative Super Bowl commercials and advertising campaigns that featured scantily clad women. Although these campaigns brought considerable awareness to the company, I am sure it did no favors in their recruitment efforts.
Things have been changing. GoDaddy CEO Blake Irving wrote an article in Fortune entitled “Why women are so turned off by the tech industry,” and he discussed what he was doing as CEO to change the perception of GoDaddy and increase the amount of women working at the company. Paul Nicks also wrote an article about women in the domain industry.
I have been a customer of GoDaddy for a long time. I am glad to see that the company is using its considerable clout to increase the number of women in the tech space. It is also great to see that the company joined the Fair Pay Pledge as well. There are many smart, capable women who work within the domain name space, and I hope GoDaddy’s efforts help them and others succeed.
Here’s the press release GoDaddy shared:
GoDaddy Inc. (NYSE: GDDY), the world’s largest technology provider dedicated to small businesses, has joined the federal ‘Fair Pay Pledge’ aimed at closing the gender pay gap between men and women in the United States.
The announcement was made today during The United State of Women Summit in Washington, D.C., where President Barack Obama talked about the importance of innovation and entrepreneurship, and how critical gender pay equity is. “This is the right thing to do. It’s the smart thing to do,” President Obama said. “Today, we can announce 28 of America’s leading businesses are committed to closing the gender pay gap.”
GoDaddy, one of those 28 companies committing to work toward salary parity with women and men in like roles, is vowing to continue its work for equal pay by joining the federal pledge and publishing its own Fair Pay pledge, as well. GoDaddy has long been committed to equal pay, and started releasing specific gender-based salary data and encouraging other companies to reveal theirs during last year’s Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference.
“Ensuring equal pay for men and women is the right thing to do, and it’s also good business. We know that diverse teams build better products, and for our diverse customer base, it makes a positive difference,” said GoDaddy CEO Blake Irving, who has championed gender parity in engineering roles over his long career. “Equal pay isn’t a reality across our industry, and there’s much more work to do. At GoDaddy we’ve been working deliberately to understand our salaries and promotion trajectory by gender, and close gaps when we find them. We also know transparency is critical to achieving parity and we continue to invite other companies to join us by sharing their data publicly.”
The GoDaddy findings from the 2014 internal salary audit revealed that, on average, for every dollar a man makes at GoDaddy, a woman is paid roughly one cent more. Women specifically in technical roles at GoDaddy, though, make approximately 99 cents on the dollar. In the management ranks, women are paid an estimated 96 centson the dollar.
Nationally overall, however, the gender pay gap persists. Despite passage of the Federal Equal Pay Act of 1963, which requires equal pay for equal work, women working full-time earn only 79 percent of men’s wages, according to federal statistics.
As part of the White House initiative announced today, participating companies commit to conduct an internal review of their pay structure, review hiring and promotions to remove any obstacles for women and include pay equity into their diversity strategies.
“We are taking these steps, in addition to all the work we’ve done to date, to help close the national wage gap and ensure fundamental fairness for all workers and are ecstatic so many other companies are joining this important effort,” said GoDaddy Chief People Officer Auguste Goldman.
Earlier this year, GoDaddy was recognized as one of the FORTUNE magazine’s top 100 “Best Companies to Work For.” Employment opportunities range from technical, to consultative customer support, to legal, accounting, marketing, and more.
GoDaddy is now serving 53 markets, in 29 languages and 44 currencies. GoDaddy employs approximately 5,000 people and is headquartered in Scottsdale, Ariz., with facilities across other locations, including Washington State, Massachusetts, Iowa and California in the U.S., as well as Asia, Brazil, India, Canada, Mexico, U.K.,Australia and The Netherlands, internationally.
To find out about career opportunities, visit www.GoDaddy.com/Careers.
Read more about the gender wage gap in an updated report released by the White House Council of Economic Advisors, available here.
