Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO, Tells Women Not To Ask For Raises, Karma Will Provide

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella attracted a chorus of criticism after advising a conference of women in the tech industry that they should not ask for raises, but wait for "karma" to provide them. Nadella was speaking at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, which describes itself as the world's largest technical conference for women in computing. Nadella's comments only validated the concerns that observors have raised about Silicon Valley's "brogrammer" culture and lack of diversity.

“It’s not really about asking for a raise, but knowing and having faith that the system will give you the right raise,” Nadella said in conversation with Maria Klawe, the president of Harvey Mudd college and a member of the Microsoft board of directors.

“That might be one of the initial ‘super powers,’ that quite frankly, women [who] don’t ask for a raise have. It’s good karma. It will come back.”

The response from the mostly female attendees lit up social media -- and not with compliments. Tech blog ReadWrite compiled a list of responses from angry attendees.

Nadella later walked back on his remarks on Twitter, but his attempt at contrition attracted further negative commentary.

Nadella's comments sound particularly tone-deaf in light of the Census Data from the 2014 Silicon Valley Index, which shows that men working in Silicon Valley with a graduate or professional degree earn 73 percent more than women in the industry with the same degrees, according to a report from Thinkprogress.