Addressing the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella stated "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."

His remarks were met tepidly by the crowd. 

Nadella continued to explain his position by saying, "that's good karma. It will come back. That's the kind of person that I want to trust, that I want to give more responsibility to."

At Microsoft, women only make up about 17% of the company's leadership, and the wage gap between men and women is well noted. According to the Equal PayBack Project, "a working woman typically loses $10,876 a year to the wage gap. Research also indicates that men are 4 times more likely than women to ask for a raise. 

"I tell my graduate students that by not negotiating their job at the beginning of their career, they're leaving anywhere between $1 million and $1.5 million on the table in lost earnings over their lifetime," says Linda Babcock, an economist at Carnegie Mellon University.

Nadella, meanwhile, is already doing damage control. He tweeted:

Earlier this week, comedian Sarah Silverman made headlines after she released a viral video about the "vagina tax" to reflect the wage gap between women and men.

You can watch it here:

You can also register or pledge to vote this election to help close the wage gap.

Watch Sarah make the case here: