I think Nadella chose his words poorly, but I thought his gist was that "I envision a time when people, both men or women, will not need to ask for raises becau

I think Nadella chose his words poorly, but I thought his gist was that "I envision a time when people, both men or women, will not need to ask for raises because it will come naturally." I don't/can't believe he is sexist in the sense that he thinks women should just sit back and wait for their paymasters to bestow a gift onto them. That being said, the last person you can trust to give you a raise is your employer. I don't think it's out of maliciousness, but it's just reality. It's a rare boss that actually cares enough to guide you and to push you to make your career better, because that means they will be losing you. I've had 1 of those bosses, when I first came to Silicon Valley, and it affected how I look at things. The rest of my bosses just want me to make their lives easier. They will pay me well and treat me well if I make their lives easier, ie. add new features, fix bugs, handle customer escalations, and I'm grateful for this because they've treated me very well. But things like raises, career growth, it's rare that managers think too much about this, because it's precisely the type of thing that makes their life worse, because if you grow out of your current role, they will lose you. The other part of this equation is that you need to be able to properly evaluate yourself. If you're just average, then you deserve market rate, because you're easily replaced. But 80% of all people think they are above average, which causes friction. If you're really good, then you deserve higher-than market, but everyone else should get market.