Washington Post: Microsoft and Facebook tout equal pay — but there’s a more glaring problem

Facebook and Microsoft both said they pay men and women virtually the same in announcements made on the eve of Equal Pay Day, which marks how long into the new year women have to keep working to catch up to what men were paid last year. As is common, the companies are comparing men and women who do the same work.

"Today, for every $1 earned by men, our female employees in the U.S. earn 99.8 cents at the same job title and level," Microsoft head of human resources Kathleen Hogan wrote in a blog post. Facebook's head of people Lori Matloff Goler made a similar announcement in a post on the social-media network, writing that the company does a "thorough statistical analyses to compare the compensation of men and women performing similar work" and they "earn the same."

Microsoft and Facebook are just the latest in a string of companies to talk more about gender pay equity after facing pressure from activist shareholders. Boutique investment firm Arjuna Capital has filed proposals with nine tech giants this shareholder season, asking them to commit to fighting gender-pay gaps and disclose salary information. Several other targets of the campaign, including Apple and Amazon, addressed the issue earlier this year.

Read the rest of this story at The Washington Post.