DHAKA: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella late Thursday sought to walk-back comments he made at a women’s computer science conference, when he suggested women don’t need to ask for a raise — they should just trust the system, reports usatoday.

“Was inarticulate re how women should ask for a raise,” said Nadella on his Twitter account, using the hashtag #GHC14, for the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing in Phoenix. 

“Our industry must close gender pay gap so a raise is not needed because of bias.”

Earlier at that conference, Nadella was asked to give his advice for women wanting to ask for a raise. He said it’s not about asking for raises, and that women should trust in the system to reward them as they go along. Not asking for a raise is “good karma,” he said.

This struck many in the audience, and on Twitter, as less-than-helpful advice, given recent studies on how women’s salaries lag men’s.

Maria Klawe, a Microsoft director who was interviewing Nadella, told him she disagreed with him, to cheers in the crowd.

BDST: 0722 HRS, OCT 10, 2014