A former CEO of a major corporation recently imparted her views on raises and the act of asking for one in today’s working world. Her statement, though, has left a few feathers ruffled.
By deeming the asking for raises ‘cringeworthy’, former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi has alienated her from the working-class women who may have looked up to her in the past.
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Former CEO of PepsiCo, Indra Nooyi, has opened up about her time in that position.
Most notably, she stated in a recent interview that, while working as the head of the megacorporation, she never once asked for a raise from the board of directors.
She served as Pepsi’s CEO for 12 years between 2006 and 2018.
Not only did she not ask for a raise, she hates the idea of asking for one at all.
In her New York Times interview, Nooyi said, “I’ve never, ever, ever asked for a raise. I find it cringeworthy. I cannot imagine working for somebody and saying my pay is not enough.”
She claims that she even refused a raise from the board, feeling uncomfortable taking one during the financial crisis.
However, her statement seems a little biased.
Especially given how much money she made as CEO. During her final year at Pepsi, she made over $31 million. It can be rather easy to not think about a raise while making tens of millions of dollars every year.
Nooyi has been an icon for women in business for some time now.
So it’s unfortunate that her statement seemed to leave other working women in the dust. While she may not need or want a raise, many women do, and this sort of opinion could dissuade them from ever asking for more fair pay.
Not to mention the plethora of other resources she had.
“I never had reason to go to them and ask for a raise because there were compensation consultants that advise the board and the board treated me fairly,” Nooyi mentioned in her interview.
But for her organization to even have compensation consultants is a luxury that most workers will never experience.
Any negative culture surrounding asking for raises disproportionately affects women.
Studies have shown that, though women ask for raises at the same rate as men, they’re less likely to receive them and are often thought of worse for asking compared to men.
Harvard Business Review found that women receive the raises they ask for about 15% percent of the time, while men receive them 20% of the time.
Nooyi’s statement ends up falling flat in many regards.
Though she’s a very accomplished businesswoman and can definitely be celebrated as an icon in her field, there’s no denying that her experience in the job force is vastly different from that of most working women, leaving her a little out of touch.
h/t: Business Insider
