Re: They didn't take the easy way and improve profits?
The article states: 'The affected employees then enjoyed an "adjustment".' Which 'affected employees' and the nature of the 'adjustment' are not specified. So maybe they did cut back on men's pay...
But I reckon that in Intel's case, increasing pay for women workers to achieve parity with men workers is such a tiny outlay compared to its other operating costs that they might as well up the rates: think how it'd look if they did it the other way and then got caught out. The main reason leading-edge semiconductor manufacturing is mind-bogglingly expensive is the equipment, the materials, the energy to run the fabs, all that sort of stuff. It's highly automated these days, too: more machines, fewer people.
The cynical side of me suspects that this is just window-dressing by clever beancounters. Still, it's a step in the right direction, even if it's not a very big one.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
