Salesforce Chief Executive Marc Benioff has proved himself to be a Respectful Leader by taking action to ensure gender equality in his organization. So far, Salesforce has looked at every one of their female employees’ pay and spent $3 million to adjust salaries so that men and women are paid equally.
Equal pay has been a hot issue lately, and reports show that women make 74 cents to a man’s dollar in America. Some companies look at their salaries for pay inequality, but most are only spot-checking to avoid lawsuits.
Salesforce’s salary audits began when two of the company’s female employees came to Benioff to discuss pay issues. Since then, they’ve looked at the salaries of over 17,000 employees. They’re also promoting more women; this past year they promoted 32% of their female employees, up from 24% the previous year.
Benioff has a history of encouraging equality. In 2013, he launched an internal program called Women’s Surge, which was created to put more women in leadership roles. “My job is to make sure that women are treated 100 percent equally at Salesforce in pay, opportunity and advancement,” Benioff says.
