Over the summer, GoDaddy conducted an audit of internal salary data, which analyzed like-for-like roles and compared how men and women were placed in the salary band for comparable roles. GoDaddy sets its salary bands by role and level based on industry-standard data, and on average takes a market-leading position, which puts GoDaddy's median salary generally higher than those in the industry. 

For every dollar a man makes at GoDaddy company-wide, a woman is paid roughly one cent more, which also holds true for non-tech women. Women in technical roles at GoDaddy make approximately 99 cents on the dollar, and in the management ranks, women are paid and estimated 96 cents on the dollar.

On the whole, women and men are paid close to parity – here is the specific percentage break down:

• Total Company: women paid .28% more than men
• Technical: women paid .11% less than men
• Non-Technical: women paid .35% more than men
• Management: women paid 3.58% less than men

The salary gap between men and women in management positions surfaced as a key finding, and is consistent with reported industry trends. GoDaddy is committing to understanding the root cause of the gap so it can create sustainable change. Theories on the gap include potential differences with time-in-role, promotion pacing and attrition. Another potential cause may be the practice of basing a new candidate's salary, in part, on their previous compensation. It's a concept GoDaddy describes as "paying it backward," meaning the lower salaries are passed on as women move from one job to the next over the course of their career. 

Additional analysis also revealed an absence of women in more senior individual contributor technical roles. The company specifically analyzed software development engineers and software development test engineers, and found that in both categories, the population of women decreases as the seniority level increases. 

"We have a baseline of salary parity data for the first time and our report shows that women are basically paid at parity with men in both technical and non-technical roles. On the whole, women have a good salary trajectory at GoDaddy, yet we aren't going to stop with this report. Now we have to understand the reasons why we don't have more women represented in some senior software development roles, and the drivers behind gender pay gap at the management level," said GoDaddy CEO Blake Irving, who committed to gender diversity when he joined the company in January 2013. "There is empirical evidence that shows products created by diverse teams are just plain better. It's the right thing to do, and it's the right thing for our business because it translates to a better customer experience."