Salesforce has spent $3 million to correct its gender pay gap

For the better part of last year, Salesforce audited its pay structure to identify and correct wage gaps found between male and female workers. And a blog post released today shows that the company has had to correct salaries to the tune of $3 million.

“We have made equality a core value for the company, and we are working to increase equality by focusing our efforts on equal pay, equal advancement, and equal opportunity,” Salesforce EVP of Global Employee Success Cindy Robbins said in the post.

As part of the correction, Robbins says that both men and women were affected in salary adjustments, although it’s not clear exactly which way they were adjusted. The change affected positions that had “statistically significant differences in pay,” which amounted to 6 percent of Salesforce’s overall workforce.

This is one of a few initiatives addressing gender diversity at Salesforce. Robbins touts in the blog post that a custom program within Salesforce designed to target high achievers that are both male and female, the High-Potential Leadership Program, led to a 33 percent increase in the number of women who were promoted at the company.

The company also extended parental leave to 12 weeks total at 80 percent of annual pay.

From a macro level, it’s clear that Salesforce  is interested in making institutional changes that affect diversity in its company. But it’s also clear that there’s more to be done. According to recent diversity report numbers — done in August of 2015 — women still represent just one third of Salesforce’s total global staff, and roughly one in five technical roles are filled by women.

Furthermore, people who identify as black, biracial or latino — which are recognized as underrepresented minorities within the industry — make up just 8 percent of the American workforce.

Although Salesforce is working on its commitment towards equal pay and equal advancement specifically for women, it’s the first step in a long journey that the company will have to take in order to stand out as a leader in industry diversity.

➤ Salesforce