Alright. So I think we can go ahead and get started. Alright. Well, thank you so much for joining everyone. My name is Rana Nader.I'm an employment attorney in California, and it's a privilege to be here with so many accomplished and brilliant woman working in one of the most innovative industries in the world. So let's dive into a very important subject that affects all of you, which is your compensation. So in my legal practice, I'm frequently asked a very important question. Am I being paid fairly? And in tech where compensation is multilayered, the answer is not as straightforward. Women in tech earn on average 20 to 30% less in total compensation than men. And it's not just salary that we're talking about. We're talking about bonuses, stocks, RSUs, and equity. Because in tech, the real money is not always in your paycheck. It's in your equity.

And this gap exists even when women have the same education experience, hold the same rules and deliver the same results. And this isn't just a junior level issue. It happens at senior levels, leadership roles and executive positions. And here we can see that women on average earn 82¢ to a dollar that's earned by men. When we look at the data, data workforce for 2026, the challenge isn't just getting woman through the door. It's the climb once they arrive. Currently, women occupy about 26 to 28% of the global tech force, but that number drops significantly to just 14% when we look at leadership roles. And the primary culprit here is what researchers called the broken rung. For every 100 men promoted to a manager position, only 87 women received that same step up. In an industry that prizes rapid scaling and move fast mentalities, missing that first promotion creates a disadvantage that persists for the rest of a woman's career.

Here we're looking at slide six, which represents the total percentage of woman working in the global tech sector. According to the current slide, you can see this sits at 26.7%. While this is already lower than the general workforce average, it serves as a baseline. As we move from general staff leader to leadership, which is VPs and directors, this percentage drops to 21%. This narrowing is often attributed to the broken rung. This is a phenomenon where women are promoted at lower rates than their male peers at the very step up to management. And at the very bottom, you can see of the funnel are the most technical and influential roles such as chief technology officer or CTO. Here, the representation shrinks significantly to just 8%. And representation is only half the battle. Retention is the other. The data shows an alarming trend.

Fifty percent of women leave the tech industry by the age of 35. And this isn't necessarily because they wanna leave the workforce force entirely, but rather due to inhospitable company cultures or perceived lack of growth opportunities. When we lose half of our female staff mid career, we are not just losing individuals. We are losing the future pipeline for executive leadership and board positions. This attrition is a significant factor in why the executive wage gap remains so wide with women at the top tier again earning approximately 82¢ for every dollar earned by their male counterparts. So why does this matter? While much of the public conversation focuses on entry level or mid career pay, as we can see in this slide, there's a more hidden yet equally damaging trend.

The executive wage gap. Data shows that as women move into senior leadership, the pay gap doesn't just persist, it often widens. Even when accounting for years of experience in education, women in tech c suites often see a significant divergence in total compensation compared to their male counterparts. This gap is driven by two factors, discretionary bonuses and equity grants. Because these variable components are often negotiated behind closed doors or based on subjective performance metrics, they become the primary vehicles for pay and equity. It's a stark reminder that even after breaking through the glass ceiling, the financial ceiling remains a very real obstacle for you ladies. And advocacy becomes more important the more successful you become. Now one of the biggest hurdles to achieving pay equity has historically been the culture of silence.

You have the explicit to right to ask about your compensation and just as importantly, the right to discuss pay with your coworkers without the fear of professional consequences. Transparency is key. When we talk about what we earn, we move pay equity from a private struggle to a collective standard. And it's important to remember that these protections are not just for your benefit. They are designed to be a system of checks and balances on the system itself, ensuring that market pay rate is determined by merit and rule and not by who's a better negotiator or who has more insider information. So why does this happen? This isn't always an obvious decision. It's a system. There's leveling bias. There's performance review bias. There's pay secrecy and discretionary equity decisions. Furthermore, there is something called a negotiation tax. Data shows that women do negotiate, but they are often penalized for it. This is what we call the double bind.

If you don't negotiate, you're underpaid. And if you do, you're sometimes labeled as difficult. We must frame negotiation as an alignment of value that aligns with market data. So the leveling trap in tech, as you all know, your level is the most significant multiplier of your wealth. We often focus on negotiating a salary within a level, but the real gap happens before you even sign. If a male peer is brought in as a senior and you're brought in as an intermediate for the same scope of work, you are not just losing $10,000 in salary. You are losing the higher equity multiplier that comes with that senior band. Over four years of vesting, that leveling decision can become half $1,000,000. So when most people think about compensation, they think about base salary.

But in tech, compensation includes, again, as we discussed, base salary, bonuses, RSUs, which are restricted stock units, stock options, and equity grants. Often, equity becomes the largest part of compensation over time. Most people understand their new initial higher grant, but they lose out on refreshers. Your initial grant vests over four years. By year three, if you haven't received additional grants, your total compensation will experience a cliff, which is a massive drop in take home pay. Pay equity requires an annual annual audit of your refreshers to ensure your staying power is valued as much as a new hire's joining power. So let's look at some of the rights that affect you. It's essential to understand that there are laws in place to protect you and to help you.

Doesn't matter what state you are from, every state, especially in this day and age has equal pay rights. So on a federal level, we have title seven, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. So for our purposes, because I practice in California and I'm sure some of you work in California, we're gonna look at the California equal pay laws. Now California has some of the nation's strongest equal pay laws. Employers cannot seek or rely on your prior salary to determine your wages. Employers must provide pay scales to all applicants and employees upon request. Under the California Pay Act, labor code section eleven ninety seven point five, employers must pay employees equally for substantially similar work considering skill, effort, and responsibility.

And the burden of proof is on your employer to justify any discrepancy with objective factors. First and foremost, you have the right to equal pay for substantially similar work. This means that your compensation must be based on objective factors like your skills and experience rather than gender or previous salary history. Beginning in 2026, California Senate Bill six forty two expands the definition of wages to include salary bonuses, stocks, RSUs, and benefit. And this is revolutionary because it stops companies from hiding behind discretionary equity. Equity moves from being a gift to being legally recognized part of compensation. California law requires employers to disclose pay ranges, and those scales must reflect expected pay. Beyond the paycheck itself, you have the right to, again, ask about your compensation, and you have the right to discuss it with your, coworkers.

For a long time, this culture of silence and tech kept pay gaps hidden, but the law explicitly protects your rights to pull back that curtain. Finally, none of these rights would be effective without the right to be free from retaliation. If you exercise any of these rights, whether you're asking for a salary review or discussing your bonus with a peer, your employer is legally prohibited from taking adverse action against you. Understanding these pillars is the first step in advocating for the pay equity that you have earned. So what can you do? Here are some steps, that I think are very crucial. Number one, know your level. Ensure your internal level matches your responsibilities. In the tech industry, your level l four, l five, e six, etcetera, often dictates your compensation band more than your actual performance rating.

Ask for the specific rubric for your level and ensure your daily responsibilities don't belong to the level above you. So if you're doing the work of a senior staff engineer, but are as labeled as a senior engineer, you are effectively being underpaid for your contributions. Number two, understand equity. Vesting, and tax implications. Remember, salary is only one piece of the puzzle. At the executive and senior levels, equity, RSUs, or stock options is where the real wealth gap occurs. Understand your vesting schedule and the tax implications of your grants. Don't just look at the target number. Look at the refreshers and how those impact your total compensation over a three to five year horizon. Number three, track everything. Maintain a value log of your business impact and quantifiable contributions to justify your compensation.

You guys should document all inquiries regarding pay to ensure that your company has a record of your protected activities. Internal advocacy on your part requires data. Maintain that value log that tracks every project you've led, every dollar you've saved the company, and every quantifiable business impact that you have made. This isn't just for your performance review. This is your evidence. Simultaneously document every inquiry you you've made regarding pay and track patterns of differential treatment that you've received compared to your male colleagues. Send emails to their appropriate people or persons at your company. By creating a paper trail of these protected activities, you're proactively building a record of your legal rights. Again, very important. Keep everything in writing. Number four, ask questions. Use your right to ask for pay scales. Again, transparency is your right.

Under California law, you have the right to request the pay scale for your position information as a benchmark to protect yourself. Don't wait for a formal review to ask. Treat these inquiries as a standard part of your professional development and financial health check. Ask specifically about the equity range for your level. You wanna know the grant value for new hires versus the typical refresher amounts for your tenure. In tech, the base salary is often just the floor, but the equity is where the ceiling is set. Inquire about the vesting schedule. Most tech companies use a four year vest with a one year cliff, but some are shifting towards front loaded or even vesting. Knowing the schedule is essential for you to calculate your unvested wealth, which is your greatest leverage point if you're considering a move or a promotion. Very important.

Ask for the company's refresh policy. Are refreshers performance based or are they standard for everyone at your level? Understanding this allows you to project your total compensation over the next few years rather than looking at this year's w two. And most importantly, negotiate. Remember, negotiation is not a one time event at a start of a job. It should be a reoccurring part reoccurring part of your career. So you're armed with your written value log and the pay scale data that you've received. Market rate correction based on the objective value that you're providing. Negotiating equity requires a different mindset than negotiating your salary. While salary is about your immediate cash flow, equity is about your long term stake at the company's growth. If the company claims they're at the top of the band for salary, that they can't pay more, pivot the conversation immediately to RSUs.

There is often more flexibility and equity grants because they don't impact the immediate cash budget for the company in the same way. Use the leveling trap as a negotiation lever. If you are performing at a higher level, but are over leveled in your current band, argue for an equity grant that matches the level you're actually operating at. This bridges the gap, excuse me, bridges the gap without inquiring, regarding an immediate formal title change. Don't just negotiate for more shares, negotiate for more value. In a volatile market asking for a specific dollar in RSUs, example, if you ask for 200,000 over four years, protects you more than asking for a specific number of shares as the grant will be calculated based on the fair market value at the time of the award. Remember that equity is often used to make you whole. If you're leaving unvested stock at a previous company, use that specific number as your baseline.

It is a standard industry practice for a new employer to buy out your remaining equity to bring you on board. And lastly, trust your instincts. If something feels off about how compensation decisions are being made, if you notice patterns of favoritism or subjective culture excuses, trust that intuition. Those gut feelings are often your internal recognition of systemic bias and use that intuition to signal to start documenting again, written documentation, document more rigorously, and if necessary, seek legal counsel to protect your pure trajectory. You don't have to do it alone. You can leak seek legal counsel to get involved and negotiate on your behalf. And in closing, you you deserve to be paid what you're worth, not just in words, but in real compensation. Again, this includes your salary, your bonus, your equity. Equal pay is not a favor. It's the law. And in the tech world, your salary pays your bills, but your equity builds your wealth.

Again, I'm gonna repeat this because it's so important. Your salary pays your bills, but your equity builds your wealth. So if you are not negotiating your RSUs, you are leaving the most significant part of your compensation on the table. And remember to advocate for yourself throughout your career. No one else is going to do it for you, so make sure you are your best advocate. I am leaving my information here. Again, my name is Rana Nader. I am with Nader Law Group. I'm an employment attorney in California. Please feel free to reach out to me if you have specific questions about, you know, RSUs and negotiating and kind of what you're going through. You can text, call me, or email me and happy to answer, any of your questions.

It's been a pleasure and an honor to speak before you all, And I wish you the best of luck in your profession, and I hope you will all continue to succeed. Thank you so much.