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A new law that went into effect this week requires most California employers to disclose salaries on job listings.

The law affects every company with more than 15 employees looking to fill a job that could be performed from the state of California. It covers hourly and temporary work, all the way up to openings for highly-paid technology executives.

That means it’s now possible to know the salaries top tech companies pay their workers. For example:

Notably, these salary listings do not include any bonuses or equity grants, which many tech companies use to attract and retain employees.

California is the latest and biggest state to enact a pay transparency law, joining Colorado and New York City, which had previously passed similar policies. But more than 20% of Fortune 500 companies are based in California, including leaders in technology and media, and advocates hope that California’s new law will be the tipping point that turns posting salary information into standard practice.

In the U.S., there are now 13 cities and states which require employers to share salary information, covering about one in four workers in the U.S., according to Payscale, a software firm focusing on salary comparison.

California’s pay transparency law is intended to reduce gender and race pay gaps and help minorities and women better compete in the labor market. For example, people can compare their current pay with job listings with the same job title and see if they’re being underpaid.

Women earn about 83 cents for every dollar a man earns, according to the U.S. Census.

“You’re going to need a lot of different elements in place in order for men and women to get paid the same for the same amount of work and the same experience,” said Monique Limón, the California state senator who sponsored the new law. “And one of those is transparency around salary ranges.”

But the new disclosures under the law might not tell the whole story of what a job pays. Companies can choose to display wide pay ranges, violating the spirit of the law, and the law doesn’t require companies to reveal bonuses or equity compensation.

The law could also penalize ambitious workers who are gunning for more money because of their experience or skills, the California Chamber of Commerce said last year when opposing the bill. Some employers might be wary of posting pay to prevent bidding wars for top talent.

In a comment to CNBC, a Meta spokesperson said, “To ensure fairness and eliminate bias in our compensation systems, we regularly conduct pay equity analysis, and our latest analysis confirms that we continue to have pay equity across genders globally and by race in the US for people in similar jobs.” The firm also noted that it generally pays full-time employees in equity as well as cash.

Apple and Google did not immediately return requests for comment.

The new law

There are two primary components to California Senate Bill No. 1162, which was passed in September and went into effect on Jan. 1.

First is the pay transparency component on job listings, which applies to any company with more than 15 employees if the job could be done in California.

The second part requires companies with more than 100 employees to submit a pay data report to the state of California with detailed salary information broken down by race, sex, and job category. Companies have to provide a similar report on the federal level, but California now requires more details.

Employers are required to maintain detailed records of each job title and its wage history, and California’s Labor Commissioner can inspect those records. California can enforce the law through fines and can investigate violations. The reports won’t be published publicly under the new law.

California state Sen. Limón said that the bill helps narrow pay gaps by giving information to people so they can negotiate their pay better or determine if they are being underpaid for their experience and skills. It will also help the state check to make sure companies are following existing equal pay laws.

“The reason this is important is that we are not able to address problems that we cannot see,” Limón said.

Limón also hopes that the requirement will help California companies recruit the best talent and compete against other states which don’t require employers to post salaries. Ultimately, she says, helping making sure women and people of color are getting paid equally will help California’s economy.

Pay transparency laws could cause competition among companies that need to compete for the best talent. Some companies could even choose to post salary ranges on job listings where it’s not required.

“The consequence is not just for an individual, there are economic consequences for the state for people being underpaid,” Limón said. “That means that their earning power and how they’re able to contribute to this economy in California, whether it’s through a sales market, a housing market, through investment, is limited, because they are not being paid equitably.”

Loopholes

The new law doesn’t require employers to post total compensation, meaning that companies can leave out information about stock grants and bonuses, offering a highly incomplete picture for some highly paid jobs.

For high-paying jobs in the technology industry, equity compensation in the form of restricted stock units can make up a large percentage of an employee’s take-home pay. In industries like finance, bonuses make up a big portion of annual pay.

“Especially for tech employees, ultimately people want to know how much they’re getting in total compensation,” said Zuhayeer Musa, co-founder of Levels.fyi, a firm focused on recruiting and coaching for technology workers. “Sometimes stock compensation can be more than 50% of your actual total comp.”

Musa said that stock from big tech companies is basically liquid because it can be immediately sold on the stock market.

The new law also allows companies to provide wide ranges for pay, sometimes ranging over $100,000 or more between the lowest salary and the highest salary for a position. That seemingly violates the spirit of the law, but companies say that the ranges are realistic because base pay can vary widely based on skills, qualifications, experience, and location.

Companies may be open to hiring candidates with a range of experience — starting from entry-level to a more senior person — for a particular opening, said Lulu Seikaly, senior corporate attorney at Payscale.

Seikaly said she recommends clients should post job listings with a specific seniority level to narrow the potential pay range.

“When we talk to customers, and they ask what do you think is a good faith range, we tell them that’s a business decision, but the way we would do it, especially from the legal side, if you post by levels, that’s going to cover you a lot more than posting one wide range,” Seikaly said.

Some California companies are not listing salaries for jobs clearly intended to be performed in other states, but advocates hope California’s new law could spark more salary disclosures around the country. After all, a job listing with an explicit starting salary or range is likely to attract more candidates than one with unclear pay.

“I was telling some folks this morning that pay transparency right now is kind of the exception,” Seikaly said. “Give it five to 10 years, I think it’ll end up being the norm.”

Gender pay gap remains despite more women entering the work force

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Alphabet expects ‘slight headwind’ to ads business this year, executives say

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Alphabet expects 'slight headwind' to ads business this year, executives say

President Donald Trump’s trade policies will have a negative impact on Google parent Alphabet‘s core advertising business, an executive from the company said Thursday.

Alphabet, which reported stronger-than-expected revenue in its first quarter of the year, faces an online ads market that’s on edge due to concerns about how Trump’s tariffs will affect the economy and business spending. While the word “tariff” was never mentioned on Alphabet’s investor call Thursday, “macro” was mentioned several times as investors peppered company executives with questions about forward looking economic impacts amid new trade policies.

Several strategists increased their odds of a recession after Trump on April 2 announced tariffs for imports of goods into the U.S. from dozens of countries. On April 9, Trump lowered tariffs on many countries to 10% for three months.

Alphabet will likely be impacted by materials needed for technical infrastructure like data centers that it uses to power efforts in artificial intelligence. It could also see second-hand effects on advertising pull-back from budget constraints.

In Thursday’s investor call, Alphabet executives said it’s too early to tell just how much it will be impacted, but they said that there would likely be headwinds to its advertising business, particularly from the Asia–Pacific region of the world, or APAC.

“Any other factors you’re seeing in advertising verticals or regions or categories that could be showing any signs of weakness?” asked Brian Nowak of Morgan Stanley.

“We wouldn’t want to speculate about potential impacts beyond noting that the changes to the de minimis exemption will obviously cause a slight headwind to our ads business in 2025, primarily from APAC-based retailers,” said Philipp Schindler, Google’s chief business officer.

Earlier this month, Trump signed an executive order that will impose a duty representing 30% of the value or $25 per item on shipments worth less than $800 that enter the U.S., starting May 2. The duty jumps to $50 per item on June 1. In February, Trump undid a loophole that since the 1930s had allowed such packages to be imported duty-free. The change brought logistical challenges that resulted in a delay of the implementation of the policy.

Retail, which Schindler said was among the top contributors to its advertising growth in the first quarter, represents at least 21% of Google ad revenue, according to estimates by Oppenheimer & Co. Chinese discount e-commerce apps Temu and Shein, which have been big advertisers in the U.S. in recent years, are of notable concern, and Temu has already pulled way back on spending.

“We’re obviously not immune to the macro environment,” Schindler added.

“Are they starting to react to some of these macro jitters that were we’re all experiencing?” asked Ross Sandler from Barclays about brands that advertise on YouTube.

Schindler said “it’s still too early in the second quarter to have a more specific view of things.” He added that Google has “a lot of experience in managing through uncertain times.”

“If macro weakens and we see more of a slowdown, would you expect to find additional opportunities to cut back more on costs?” asked Doug Anmuth from JPMorgan.

Alphabet CFO Anat Ashkenazi said the company is still looking at spending $75 billion in capital expenditures in 2025 but stipulated “the investment level may fluctuate from quarter to quarter due to the impact of changes in the timing of deliveries and construction schedules.” 

Expenditures will go toward technical infrastructure, primarily for servers, followed by data centers and networking, executives said in February.

The company is still focused on “driving efficiency and productivity throughout the organization,” Ashkenazi said on Thursday’s call, pointing to her 2024 comments, where she said the organization can “always push a little further” when it comes to cost cutting, which has included cuts to headcount and real estate.

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai also mentioned “efficiency” as a means of trying to keep a lean-enough company to weather potential macro storms.

“If the macro environment were to change and become more downwardly volatile, how should investors think about the investments that are must-make this year, almost fixed in nature, versus where there might be more flexibility?” asked Eric Sheridan from Goldman Sachs.

Pichai responded that the company plans to continue consolidating teams and cutting back on costs elsewhere, which he said “should help us have a more resilient organization, irrespective of macroeconomic conditions.”

— CNBC’s Jordan Novet contributed to this report.

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Intel CFO says tariffs increase chance for economic slowdown, recession getting likelier

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Intel CFO says tariffs increase chance for economic slowdown, recession getting likelier

The Intel headquarters in Santa Clara, California, US, on Wednesday, April 23, 2025. Intel Corp. is scheduled to release earnings figures on April 24.

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Intel CFO David Zinsner said President Donald Trump’s tariffs and retaliation from other countries has increased the likelihood of a recession.

“The very fluid trade policies in the U.S. and beyond, as well as regulatory risks, have increased the chance of an economic slowdown, with the probability of a recession growing,” Zinsner said on the company’s quarterly earnings call on Thursday.

Intel reported better-than-expected first-quarter results, partially because some customers stockpiled chips ahead of tariffs, the company said. However, guidance for revenue and profit was below expectations, pushing the chipmaker’s stock down more than 5% in extended trading.

Intel’s forecast for the current quarter is $11.2 billion to $12.4 billion. Zinsner said the range is “wider than normal” due to uncertainty caused by tariffs.

The company’s outlook underscores how sensitive manufacturers are to trade restrictions, even for companies that are committed to building products in the U.S. While Intel manufactures some of its advanced processors domestically, it also partners with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Samsung in Korea to manufacture chips, and imports chipmaking machinery from ASML in Europe. The company also needs parts and materials that come from China.

Zinsner said the tariff environment makes it harder for Intel to predict its performance for the quarter and the year, and added that it’s now anticipating that the total market for its chips could shrink, especially if consumers stop buying new computers.

“The biggest risk we see is the impact of a potential pullback in investment and spending, as businesses and consumers react to higher costs and the uncertain economic backdrop,” Zinsner said.

Although Intel has enough production in disparate places around the world to mitigate some of the tariffs, the company “will certainly see costs increase,” he added.

One possibility is that consumers may opt for laptops and other computers based around older-generation chips, which are less expensive, said Michelle Johnston Holthaus, CEO of Intel Products.

“The macroeconomic concerns and tariffs have everybody kind of hedging their bets in what they need to have from an inventory perspective,” Holthaus said on the earnings call.

Beyond tariffs, Intel faces efforts by the U.S. government to require licenses to ship advanced chips for artificial intelligence to countries like China.

Intel’s earnings report on Thursday was its first under CEO Lip-Bu Tan, who was appointed to the job last month. Tan said he planned to cut Intel’s operational and capital expenses in order to make the company more efficient.

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Waymo reports 250,000 paid robotaxi rides per week in U.S.

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Waymo reports 250,000 paid robotaxi rides per week in U.S.

A Waymo rider-only robotaxi is seen during a test ride in San Francisco, California, U.S., December 9, 2022. 

Paresh Dave | Reuters

Alphabet reported Thursday that Waymo, its autonomous vehicle unit, is now delivering more than 250,000 paid robotaxi rides per week in the U.S.

CEO Sundar Pichai said Waymo has options in terms of “business models across geographies,” and the robotaxi company is building partnerships with ride-hailing app Uber, automakers and operations and maintenance businesses that tend to its vehicle fleets.

“We can’t possibly do it all ourselves,” said Pichai on a call with analysts for Alphabet’s first-quarter earnings

Pichai noted that Waymo has not entirely defined its long-term business model, and there is “future optionality around personal ownership” of vehicles equipped with Waymo’s self-driving technology. The company is also exploring the ways it can scale up its operations, he said.

The 250,000 paid rides per week are up from 200,000 in February, before Waymo opened in Austin and expanded in the San Francisco Bay Area in March. 

Waymo, which is part of Alphabet’s Other Bets segment, is already running its commercial, driverless ride-hailing services in the San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Austin regions.

Earlier this month, Waymo and its partner Uber, began allowing interested riders to sign up to try the robotaxi service in Atlanta when it opens this summer. 

The early pioneer in self-driving technology, Waymo has managed to beat Elon Musk-led Tesla and a myriad of now-defunct autonomous vehicle startups to the U.S. market.

Tesla is promising that it will be able to turn its Model Y SUVs into robotaxis by the end of June for a driverless ride-hailing service it plans to launch in Austin.

After about a decade of promises and missed deadlines, Tesla still does not offer a vehicle that’s safe to use without a human at the wheel ready to steer or brake at all times.

Musk criticized Waymo’s approach to driverless tech on his company’s first-quarter earnings call on Tuesday. Musk said Waymo autonomous vehicles are “very expensive” and made in only “low volume.” Tesla’s partially automated driving systems rely mostly on cameras to navigate, while Waymo’s driverless systems rely on lidar technology, other sensors and cameras.

Would-be competitors to Waymo also include Amazon-owned Zoox, Mobileye, May Mobility and international autonomous vehicle companies such as WeRide and Baidu’s Apollo Go.

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