The first co-leader of Blizzard Jen Oneal has said she was paid less than her male counterpart during her brief time in the role. Oneal claims to have been offered equal pay to Mike Ybarra only after she had tendered her resignation.
In a eport by IGN, internal messages which have been reviewed by IGN, and verified by "by multiple Blizzard employees", reveal more details about the pay disparity between the co-leaders.
A message from Ybarra to a Slack channel reads: "Jen and I shared with management that we wanted to be paid the same to co-lead Blizzard together." He explained the reason they were not initially on the same salary, "Jen and I were both on existing contracts. I ran [Battle.net & Online Products] and she ran [Vicarious Visions] so our pay was different."
Oneal added further context left out by Ybarra. "When Mike and I were placed in the same co-lead role, we went into the role with our previous compensation, which was not equivalent," she wrote. "It remained that way for some time well after we made multiple rejected requests to change it to parity. While the company informed me before I tendered my resignation that they were working on a new proposal, we were made equivalent offers only after I tendered that resignation.”
Considering Activision Blizzard is being sued by the state of California's Department of Fair Employment and Housing over alleged issues such as a frat boy culture, sexual harassment, and unequal pay, it is absurd that Jen Oneal was not given the same pay as her male counterpart.
This recent news comes amid allegations that Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick knew about the sexual misconduct for years and actively protected abusers. The company has adopted the same tone-deaf, defensive stance it took earlier this year when the first lawsuit arose, stating the report by the Wall Street Journal offers "a misleading view of Activision Blizzard and our CEO".
Employees staged a walkout yesterday and are demanding Kotick's immediate resignation. Despite all this, and Kotick threatening to have a female employee killed, the Activision Blizzard board has issued a statement in full support of Kotick.