Coinbase Issues Statement After Allegations of Underpaid Compensation for Women & Black

On Tuesday, December 29, the New York Times released a report of the internal pay data at one of the leading crypto exchanges Coinbase. The analysis shows that Coinbase has been underpaying its black and women workers. In fact, the pay disparity is even bigger than the overall industry standards, the report stated.

Coinbase has immediately issued a statement after the report stating that the company is committed to fair and equitable compensation for all of its employees. Coinbase Chief Legal Officer L.J. Brock writes that since he joined the office in March 2019, the company has majorly revamped its compensation structure to serve the company’s growth needs.

Over the last two years, the company has worked on implementing a fair and transparent pay-for-performance philosophy. He also noted that the company has implemented an industry-standard leveling system for all roles within the company. Brock further added:

“In early 2019 we provided market adjustments in base pay to ensure that all employees were compensated within the new market range for their role. At that time, all eligible employees received a 3% compensation increase, and a subset of that group received additional adjustments to ensure they were within the range for their role”.

Besides, as part of Coinbase’s Target Total Cash Model, the company doesn’t negotiate during its hiring or promotion process. Besides, as part of revamping its pay structure, the company has also ensured equity reward to employees who did not get it previously. In further explanation, Brock wrote:

“Coinbase is committed to ruthlessly eliminating bias in all our internal processes. We also recognize that it is best practice to regularly check our work, and while pay equity is critical at any stage of maturation, we believe that we have implemented the framework to ensure we are driving equitable outcomes.

We recently retained a certified woman-owned law firm to partner with an expert software solution, Syndio, to audit our global pay data. We will examine our pay through the lens of ethnicity/race, in addition to gender”.

With over One-year of implementing the Compensation Reboot program, Coinbase will continue to challenge and review its framework as it further goes to hiring top-talent worldwide.