• by Ray Schultz , February 22, 2021

Email marketing company Mailchimp is denying charges of harassment and gender discrimination.

Principal Engineer Kelly Ellis resigned last week, alleging in tweets that she was paid less than men at the same level, and that she endured sexism and bullying, according to a report by Insider.

“Welp, I guess it's official: I'm leaving my job,” Ellis says in a tweet. “I dealt with sexism and bullying, and found out that I, as the only female principal eng, was paid less than the other (male) principals outside of Atlanta. I would not recommend friends work at Mailchimp, especially women.”

Ellis also writes that “a conversion about comp went really south.” However, the firm’s chief people and culture officer Robin White sent an email to employees, stating: “we've thoroughly and independently investigated the allegations that were raised and found them to be unsubstantiated.”

White adds that an independent study by Aon Radford found that “our pay packages are equitable for women and people of color, and that our existing measures are working to ensure pay equity.” 

But White acknowledges: “We know that many of you are looking for more transparency around employee pay. We're committed to that and already have a plan for increased transparency this year.” 

White also states that “Mailchimp does not tolerate any type of mistreatment, including discrimination, bullying, or harassment."

According to the company, CEO Ben Chestnut sent an additional email, stating that he and the executive are holding office hours to collect input, and personnel are also invited to comment via email and anonymously. 

"I won't share the confidential details or get into a back and forth about the specific situation that came up this week, but the fact of the matter is that it has led to some difficult conversations and brought up some serious issues, and I want to be clear about this: I don't want any of our employees to have a negative experience working here, and I want to know about it when it happens so we can find the problems and fix them," Chestnut writes.