Satya Nadella's 'Karma' Comment on Women Wages Leads to Twitter Storm

Satya Nadella, the Microsoft CEO's comments about women in the IT industry needing to rely on their Karma for getting a raise has led to many taking umbrage at his unique 'Indian philosophical take' on the gender bias in the technology space.

Nadella, who took over in February, was speaking at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing in Phoenix Thursday, where he was asked about his opinion on women and salary hikes and how some are reticent about asking for a raise.

"It's not really about asking for the raise, but knowing and having faith that the system will actually give you the right raises as you go along," he answered. Not asking for raise, he added, is "good karma" that would help a boss realize that the employee could be trusted and should have more responsibility.

But his answer raised many hackles and as expected Twitter went bombastic. Nadella was quick to get into save mode and tried to explain his position in a tweet.

Was inarticulate re how women should ask for raise. Our industry must close gender pay gap so a raise is not needed because of a bias #GHC14

— Satya Nadella (@satyanadella) October 9, 2014

He even circulated an internal memo on the company's website which reads: "I answered that question completely wrong, I believe men and women should get equal pay for equal work. And when it comes to career advice on getting a raise when you think it's deserved, Maria's advice was the right advice. If you think you deserve a raise, you should just ask," reports The Telegraph.. Here are some reaction on Twitter about his comments

@satyanadella how about take gender out of the equation PERIOD! people should be judged on work only! Doing it any other way is sexist — Derek (@derekcwilkinson) October 9, 2014

Karma doesn't pay the bills. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella to Women: Don't Ask For A Raise, Trust Karma https://t.co/oaUoHVgOzS — Lucy P. Marcus @lucymarcus) October 10, 2014

"I'll wait for Karma to lower my #xboxlive price too," tweeted Chuck Granade.

Latest data reveals that only 29 percent of the over 100,000 empoyees in Microsoft are females.

But giving the devil his due, one can say that he meant it as the saying on good Karma goes, "Good work is always recognized so keep on performing and you will get your due", even the ones who are shy about it.