Microsoft’s CEO said that women shouldn’t ask for raises and should rely on “karma” instead.

Tell CEO Satya Nadella: Disclose Microsoft’s pay data immediately.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently told an audience full of women in technology that they shouldn’t ask for raises. That instead they should rely on “karma” for career advancement.

The CEO knew he had messed up, and almost immediately posted an apology onto Microsoft’s website.  (1)

The thing is: an apology isn’t enough. We need more than words to prove that this was just a slip up, and not a mentality that pervades Microsoft. We need evidence that the company is truly committed to diversity and inclusion.

For Black people, this isn’t just a women’s issue. Black men earn 73 cents for every dollar a white man earns, while Black women earn only 64 cents. (2)

If Black men and women are ever going to have a fair shot at Microsoft, or anywhere in the tech industry, big companies need to make their salary statistics public. We need to know how much Black folks are earning compared to their white counterparts.

We’re going to be waiting a long time for equality if we wait for karma to kick in. For-example, the pay gap has barely budged in a decade, and last year it got even worse for Black women. The pay gap takes $18,650 out of Black women’s pockets every year. (3) And since the recent financial crisis, the racial wealth gap has doubled: white families now have 22 times the household wealth Black families have. (4)

Microsoft is one of the biggest technology companies on the planet and employs 99,000 people – more than Apple or Google. (5) Despite a public commitment to diversifying their workforce over the last twenty years, less than a third of Microsoft employees are women, and only 3.5% are Black folks. That means the company’s workforce has four times fewer Black people than the American population. (6, 7)

With the CEO’s recent “karma” comment, the country is paying attention to what Microsoft does next. By taking action right now we can ensure that Microsoft releases its pay data — a crucial step in ensuring pay equity for Black people.

Add your name today.

Thanks and peace,

–Arisha, Rashad, Matt, and Bhavik for the ColorOfChange team
Sources:

1. “Microsoft CEO apologizes for ridiculous comments about women“, Salon, 10-10-2014.
2. “Unequal Pay Is Even More Unequal For Women Of Color“, ThinkProgress, 11-15-2013.
3. See source #2
4. “Great Recession Doubled Wealth Gap Between Whites And African-Americans“, ThinkProgress, 06-21-2014.
5. “Samsung has more employees than Google, Apple, and Microsoft combined“, ArsTechnica, 09-25-2014.
6.  “Our Global Diversity & Inclusion“, Microsoft.
7.  “Our employee community“, Microsoft, 09-30-2014.

At a time when Ebola is all over the news and it’s easy for misinformation to get interpreted as truth, make sure you have the clear-cut facts.

Here’s what our public health officials are saying about the Ebola virus — get informed, and share this information where everyone can see it.

1. You CAN’T get Ebola through:

• Casual contact with someone who has no symptoms of the disease
• Air
• Water
• Food in the U.S.

2. The only way a person can get Ebola is through direct contact with the bodily fluids of someone who is already showing symptoms of the disease.

3. If a person does not have symptoms, they are not contagious.

As President Obama, leadership at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other senior officials have reiterated, the chances of a widespread Ebola outbreak here in the United States are extremely low.

Still, you don’t want to be misinformed about Ebola. Find out more about how we’re responding to the disease, and the domestic and international efforts to contain and end the epidemic.

You can visit the CDC for more information on our response to Ebola and call 1-800-CDC-INFO (1-800-232-4636) for additional inquiries.

Early voting begins in just three days in Georgia — on Monday, October 13. But for over a month, in a craven partisan attack on voting rights, Secretary of State Brian Kemp has refused to add more than 40,000 new voters to the rolls, many of whom applied as far back as May of this year.

On Tuesday, ColorOfChange along with our friends at the New Georgia Project, PowerPAC, Democracy for America, the NAACP, and dozens of concerned Georgia citizens are going to deliver your petitions to Brian Kemp’s office, calling him out publicly for his refusal to do his job.

Join us and thousands of Georgia members to demand that Secretary of State Brian Kemp stop silencing Georgia voters and process all outstanding voter registration forms immediately. It only takes a moment.

Thanks and Peace,

–Rashad, Arisha, Aimée, Matt, Johnny, Kenneshea and the entire ColorOfChange.org team

========================================

With less than a week to go, the Georgia Secretary of State is sitting on 50k+ valid voter registrations.Demand Brian Kemp do his job and process these forms immediately

With only one week left before the October 6 voter registration deadline, Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp is refusing to process more than 50,000 valid voter registration forms.¹

Last week, the Secretary of State’s Office announced that it would be investigating the New Georgia Project — a group focused on registering Black, Latino, and other underrepresented Georgia voters² — after finding that only 25 out of 85,000 of the forms submitted might be forged.³ With so little time left for Georgians to register to vote in time for the Nov. 6 election, Kemp’s decision comes off as extremely partisan and very strategic.

Join us and a growing coalition of voices within Georgia in telling Brian Kemp to stop playing politics with Georgia’s freedom to vote. He must process all valid voter registration forms before the October 6 deadline. It only takes a moment.

Kemp was recently captured on tape warning an audience of Republicans in Gwinnett county that local work to register “minority voters” could tip the balance this election.⁴ Now, two months after his speech, the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office has a backlog of 51,423 voter registration forms. These forms account for more than 50% of the 85,000 submitted by the New Georgia Project and they must be received by Oct. 6 in order for voters to participate in the upcoming midterm elections.⁵

The Supreme Court’s decision last year to gut the Voting Rights Act struck a huge blow, removing a critical barrier to preventing these types of tactics that limit voting rights. Disenfranchising and attempting to intimidate minority voters is a not a new tactic in Georgia — just ask the residents of a town called Quitman. In 2010, in a craven attempt to counteract a projected demographic shift that may turn Georgia from red to purple, Kemp’s office and the state of Georgia conducted a voter fraud witch hunt that, after four years of legal battles, revealed no wrongdoing.⁶ Voters were questioned by armed Georgia agents, coerced into signing statements, and forced to testify for the state during trial after trial. Governor Nathan Deal even got involved by issuing an executive order removing the elected members from office — a pretty heavy-handed and intimidating power play for a school board election in a town with a population of less than 4,000.⁷

Not only is processing these voter registrations the right thing to do, but it’s also Brian Kemp’s job to do so. While County officials must vet registrations, it is the Secretary of State who is responsible for processing all voter registrations. If anything, he should be doing everything in his power to ensure that these applications are filed before the deadline instead of halting the process and sitting on his hands.

Demand Secretary of State Brian Kemp process all of the valid voter registration forms that his office has on hold. Once you have done so, please ask your friends and family to do the same.

Thanks and peace,

— Rashad, Arisha, Matt, Aimée, Kenneshea, and the rest of the ColorOfChange team
October 10th, 2014

Help support our work. ColorOfChange.org is powered by YOU—your energy and dollars. We take no money from lobbyists or large corporations that don’t share our values, and our tiny staff ensures your contributions go a long way.

References

1. “Mass Vote Registration in Georgia Brings Accusations of Voter Fraud,” Newsweek, 09-23-14
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/3969?t=8&akid=3739.1174326.8e-FFy

2. “Georgia GOP official express concerns about ‘minority voters’,” MSNBC, 09-11-14
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/3973?t=10&akid=3739.1174326.8e-FFy

3. “A first glimpse into Brian Kemp’s voter registration probe,” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 09-17-14
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/3972?t=12&akid=3739.1174326.8e-FFy

4. “What Brian Kemp really said about Democratic voter registration efforts,” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 09-11-14
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/3970?t=14&akid=3739.1174326.8e-FFy

5. “Why Does Georgia Keep Going After Black Voters?,” Vice, 09-18-14
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/3971?t=16&akid=3739.1174326.8e-FFy

6. “Georgia GOP official express concerns about ‘minority voters’,” MSNBC, 09-11-14
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/3973?t=18&akid=3739.1174326.8e-FFy

7. See reference 5.