19 Mar 2021
EquityZen Response
5yThank you for sharing your thoughts. First, I’ll say that we all agree that EquityZen has some of the most collaborative and dedicated people out there. I’m very glad you enjoyed that part of your experience.
As for the concerns you raise, I’ll address the topic of pay first. We are a not-yet-8 year-old company that had fewer than 50 employees until very recent weeks. We do not benchmark our compensation to big law firms. We benchmark to startups using a multitude of factors that include location, revenue, valuation, and number of employees. We use industry surveys whose data is provided directly by the companies’ HR teams as opposed to crowd-sourced sites like the one we are on right now, though we do often check sites like this for cross-referencing purposes. A search today on Glassdoor for Paralegal salaries in NY for a company of our size will actually show an average salary of about $30k *less* than what was paid for this role at EquityZen. Another thing to keep in mind is that all positions have a wide range of salaries and companies pay at different points in those ranges depending on what other components of pay are offered. One can often find an example of a company paying a base salary at the high end of a range, but what is not obvious is whether or not that company is paying bonuses, providing their employees with stock option grants, or paying health benefits premiums, all of which we do provide as part of our compensation packages. The important thing when making comparisons is to look at a total compensation and reward package, not just base salary, and that is very difficult to do by viewing anecdotal salary searches.
Regarding people being paid differently for the “same” job. This, too, can be complicated. It is true that salaries can vary within a job with the same title, and this is due to differences in the experience and skill sets that people bring to the company at the time they are hired. Variances that occur as time goes by is primarily determined by performance which is formally evaluated twice per year. Another factor is also the time at which someone joins the company as it relates to the compensation review cycle. When someone joins the company mid-cycle, at the time of merit reviews, any increase is performance-based and then pro-rated based on hire date. This is one of many components of fair pay. If someone has already put in a full year of work and someone else in a similar position has put in 6 months, it would not be fair to the longer tenured employee to provide the newer employee with a full year’s increase. I can assure you that there are no circumstances at EquityZen when male employees have been offered more than women for the same job at the time of hire, taking prior experience and existing skills into consideration. Over the course of employment, different talents emerge, different areas of improvement are identified and different career paths are formed, some of which include promotions or lateral moves. These may all result in variances in job responsibilities, some of which may warrant a different level of compensation. None of these variances are gender-based.
The second concern you raise is a serious one and we take your feedback very seriously. It is never ok for anyone to speak to anyone in a manner that is anything other than respectful and it is not tolerated at EquityZen. If anyone is ever uncomfortable based on the behavior of their co-workers or managers, there are a number of outlets offered to raise those concerns including Office Hours with any member of the leadership team, an open invitation to find time on People Operation’s calendar, and an Incident Report where anonymous reports can be made. Annual Anti-Harassment & Discrimination training for every member of the team, including contractors, is done with the intention of educating everyone on what inappropriate behavior may look like and what an employee should do if they believe they are the recipient of such behavior. The only way a company can address an issue is if they are aware an issue exists, so we encourage people to speak up. We are extremely sorry that you experienced behavior that offended you. I can assure you that since these issues have been brought to our attention, we are taking the necessary steps to look further into them, ensure that any issues are addressed appropriately, and do our best to uphold a culture and work environment where everyone feels welcomed and respected. As a company founded solely by people of color, diversity, equity and inclusion are in our DNA and any violation of these values is not tolerated.