When it comes to pay, women on average are paid 20% less than men — and African-American and Hispanic women are paid even less. At Salesforce, we tasked ourselves with understanding how pay discrepancies happen within the company and what ongoing solutions might be.

After two senior female leaders brought the issue of pay inequality to CEO Marc Benioff's attention, Salesforce conducted its first all-company equal pay assessment.

The assessment showed that Salesforce needed to adjust some salaries—for both men and women. Approximately six percent of employees required a salary adjustment, and roughly the same number of women and men were impacted. Salesforce spent nearly $3 million dollars in 2016 to address statistically significant differences in pay.

In 2017, we increased the scope of our assessment to evaluate both salaries and bonuses globally. We also looked at differences in pay by gender, as well as by race and ethnicity. Following our second assessment, eleven percent of employees received salary adjustments, and Salesforce spent approximately $3 million again to address any unexplained differences in pay. To date, Salesforce has spent approximately $6 million to address statistically significant differences in pay.

In addition, we strive to be a place where everyone can bring their full, authentic self to work and feel supported by our entire Ohana. In the U.S., we offer employees options for voluntary self-identification (self-I.D.). In addition to the usual self I.D. fields that most people recognize (e.g., marital status, race/ethnicity, abilities) we have self I.D. options for veterans, sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender pronouns.

Pay equality is a moving target for growing companies in competitive industries and salaries must be consistently monitored and addressed. Salesforce now reviews salaries for gender discrepancies on an ongoing basis. If we find a pay gap, we work to close it - making equal pay a part of our company’s DNA.

We are on a journey to improving equality at Salesforce. We recognize that a lot of work remains to ensure that pay equality is a reality — not just at Salesforce, but in our companies, our communities and our country.