Google employees who stay in the same office after the work-from-home orders from the pandemic pass will be earning less if they decide to work remotely on a permanent basis.
Google’s company pay calculator, which has been seen by Reuters, is intended to allow workers to see the financial impact of a move – but it has thrown up some situation where workers who usually commute to the office but choose to work from home will earn less money, without changing role or office.
“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 from,” a Google spokesperson said.
The Work Location Tool, which launched in June, shows one employee who generally commutes two hours to Google’s Seattle office will suffer a 10 per cent pay cut if they work from home.
“It’s as high of a pay cut as I got for my most recent promotion,” the unnamed employee told Reuters.
“I didn’t do all that hard work to get promoted to then take a pay cut.”
Workers who chose to leave San Francisco for a comparably priced area in California could see pay cuts of as much as 25 per cent.