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AMD pays first woman CEO less

by on16 October 2014



Read used to earn $150,000 more

While AMD is widely being praised for having its first woman CEO, the move has also caused a PR problem for the company. The salary for its new chief executive officer, Lisa Su, will be $850,000 — less than the $1 million that outgoing CEO Rory Read used to make.

Su, a 44-year-old Ph.D. held technical positions at IBM and Texas Instruments so it is not as if she is less qualified than Read was when he took over. In fact, Su is more qualified when it comes to engineering and the only difference between the two is that Read is a man. The move has shocked Silicon Valley – not because it shows the rampant sexism in technology companies but it was because it was so obvious and public.

AMD insisted the move was not because it was a backward, women hating, bunch of misogynists who believe women should be barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen. Instead, they said it was all Su’s fault for loyally working with the company for years.

“Rory’s compensation included various incentives common in situations in which a person joins a new company. As a current employee, this was not the case for Lisa,” a spokesman said.

So in other words if she was not so loyal and had applied for the same job from another company she might have the same amount of money. 

Right now there is a crusade amongst Silicon Valley staff to get the same pay as men for the same job. Last week Microsoft boss Satya Nadella made a huge PR cock up by telling a woman’s conference that women who did not demand wage rises had a “special power” and if they trusted in the system they would get “good karma” rather than cash.

Last modified on 16 October 2014
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