Facebook just eliminated its gender pay gap

Three cheers for Zuckerberg!

Good news and the gender pay gap rarely go hand in hand. But in a break from the norm, there’s finally a slice of the good news pie for women, equality and the pay gap, and it’s all thanks to the folks at Facebook.

Ahead of Equal Pay Day in America, which lands on April 12, Facebook’s 'VP of people' Lori Matloff Goler has announced that the company has eliminated the pay gap between its male and female workers.

That’s right, men and women with the same skills and level of experience at Facebook get paid the same amount of money. Not 78 cents for women to every dollar men get (the average rate of pay disparity in the States). The same.

Bravo Mark Zuckerberg!

Announcing the news via a Facebook post, Lori writes:

'Tomorrow is Equal Pay Day - a date, April 12th, chosen to mark how much further into the new year women have to work to earn the same amount as men. It’s a great awareness-raising moment. At Facebook, though, we think about equal pay year-round.

'We regularly review our compensation practices to ensure pay equity, and have so for many years. We complete thorough statistical analyses to compare the compensation of men and women performing similar work. I’m proud to share that at Facebook, men and women earn the same.

'At Facebook we value those who bring varying perspectives, for many reasons, including background, community, culture, race, ethnicity - and gender. We call this cognitive diversity, and we want more of it. It propels our mission: to make the world more open and connected.

'There’s always more work to be done, of course. But we’re proud to be a leader in pay equality, and look forward to a time when we don’t even need to call it out.'

Facebook aren’t the only company to announce this kind of good news, either. In groundbreaking fashion, Intel confirmed earlier this year that they’ve also closed the gender pay gap between male and female staff, while Microsoft and Apple both claim to be very nearly there too.

It seems Silicon Valley really is paving the way for the rest of the world to follow.

The news follows some rather depressing UK statistics however, which revealed last month that in an analysis of data released by the Office for National Statistics, the average woman is likely to earn £300,000 less than her male counterparts over the course of her working life.

Ready to change track for a career in tech then? We’re right with you, Silicon Valley here we come!