Google is now paying in terms of distance.
Google employees may see their paychecks reduced if they decide to telecommute permanently.
The tech company has developed an internal pay calculator that determines how its employees would be paid depending on the location they work from, BBC reported.
Some workers, especially those who had to travel long distances, may face a salary cut without changing residence.
The calculator, first obtained by Reuters, allows Google employees to understand how telecommuting could have a dent on their paycheck based on their address.
Employees with longer travel times were reported to get the highest salary cuts. Based on the "metering" system, an employee residing in Stamford, Connecticut -- which is around an hour from the company's New York office -- would get a 15% reduction working offsite, but an officemate living in the city is spared from the cut.
The distance calculator is part of an ongoing experiment happening across Silicon Valley, which has of late become the new system in determining how much employees should be paid in these pandemic times.
Google has reset its proposed return-to-the-workplace date to the middle of October in the face of the increasing number of COVID-19 infections caused by the highly transmissible Delta variant.
Other tech giants, like Facebook and Twitter, have also trimmed their remote workers' salaries even if they had relocated to less expensive areas.
Microsoft, for instance, has offered to pay less for workers residing in areas where it's more inexpensive to live.
The smaller ones, like Zillow and Reddit, adopted to so-called location-agnostic pay structures, citing the benefits in terms of hiring, employee retention, and diversity.
A Google representative claimed the pay program has always been gauged by location, adding that the company always pays at the top of the local market based on the worker's location.
Google said it has supported the work-from-home "new normal" during the global health crisis.
The Mountain View, California-based company recently greenlit nearly 10,000 staff requests to telecommute.
Julia Pollak, head of economic strategies at jobs marketplace ZipRecruiter, noted that American firms slashing paychecks for remote personnel might see a drop in employee retention.
Meanwhile, Google said it is not looking into imposing the new policy in the United Kingdom at this time.
