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Facebook: 'No need for gender pay equity report'

Bad news for those who were hoping to get an inside look into Facebook’s compensation fairness. At the company’s annual stockholder meeting on 1 June, shareholders rejected a proposal for Facebook to prepare a gender pay equity report by the end of this year, TechCrunch reports.

The stockholder proposal called for a report that would allow investors to assess Facebook’s strategy and performance with regards to the gender pay gap.

It referenced Glassdoor’s 2014 Tech Company Base Salary Comparison By Gender report, which concluded women software engineers at Facebook earn US$5,949 less than their male counterparts. Additionally, it referred to a number of studies and reports pointing to the benefits of tracking and managing pay equity.

It also offered a comparison to the company’s peers, stating: “S&P 500 peers companies including Intel, Apple, Expedia, Adobe, Amazon, Microsoft, and eBay have publically reported and committed to gender pay equity.”

By rejecting the proposal, the shareholders followed the advice of Facebook’s board of directors, who recommended a vote against it. The company argues there is no need for the report, as it has been reviewing compensation fairness to ensure pay equity for years.

In a statement advising stockholders to vote against the report, Facebook said: "Given our ongoing compensation practices and diversity efforts, and that we have previously shared that we have pay parity, our board of directors believes that the preparation of the report contemplated by this proposal is unnecessary and not beneficial to our stockholders."

Human Resources magazine has reached out to Facebook for comment.

ALSO READ: How Facebook, Singtel, and more are enabling women in the workplace

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