Google employees could lose money by working at home: report

Google employees could lose money by not returning to the office after the coronavirus pandemic, according to a company pay calculator seen by Reuters and those familiar with the situation.

Google has already paid less to staffers who work remotely from less expensive areas of the country, but this move could reportedly affect workers without them changing their address.

One employee who lives a two-hour commute away from Google’s Seattle office says he could see a 10 percent pay cut if he decides to work from home permanently.

“It’s as high of a pay cut as I got for my most recent promotion. I didn’t do all that hard work to get promoted to then take a pay cut,” the person told Reuters.

Google provides its employees with a calculator to see how much of a pay cut they would take if they chose to move to a less expensive area.

An employee living in Connecticut, an hour away from the New York office, shared a screenshot of the calculator with Reuters that showed a 15 percent pay cut if the person works from home.

The Google staffer told Reuters a person living in New York itself, by contrast, would receive no pay cut.

“Our compensation packages have always been determined by location, and we always pay at the top of the local market based on where an employee works from,” a Google spokesperson told the outlet.

At the end of July, Google extended its work-from-home program until Oct. 18 and announced employees will be required to be fully vaccinated when they return to the office. 

The Hill has reached out to Google for further comment.