In the wake of his controversial comments about women, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella now says there is no pay gap between men and women at Microsoft. In an interview with MSNBC, Nadella said men and women are paid equally at Microsoft with only around a .5 percent difference in salaries on a global basis.

This data point increases in the United States, where women earned 99.7 percent of what their male counterparts made during the latest reporting period, provided they held the same role or title, of course. "So it's different than what perhaps is sort of normally felt across all industries," Nadella said.

Though Nadella said he is proud of the accomplishment, he made it clear that there is more work to be done at Microsoft to foster a more diverse employee workforce.

"The real issue is do we have enough people of different ethnicity and women in those levels? Do we have them in our corporate vice president ranks? Are we promoting them as vigorously as we are?" he said. Nadella added that he will "go to work" on these issues and others.

Going forward, Nadella said his two guiding principles will be establishing Microsoft as a company that delivers "equal pay for equal work" and "equal opportunity for equal work."

Nadella's controversial comments about women in the workforce date back to early October. During a presentation this month at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing event, Nadella was asked what advice he would give to women who felt uncomfortable seeking a raise. He said: "It's not really about asking for the raise, but knowing and having faith that the system will actually give you the right raises as you go along." Nadella went on to say that not asking for a raise is "good karma" that would eventually lead a manager to see that the employee is trustworthy and capable of taking on more responsibility.

Nadella faced immediate backlash over these comments, and he quickly responded by saying that he was "completely wrong." He added that, "If you think you deserve a raise, you should just ask."

Microsoft released an internal diversity report earlier this month, showing that 29 percent of the company's global workforce are women, which represents a 5 percent year-over-year increase.

Nadella was named Microsoft CEO in February, becoming the company's third chief executive. He follows in the footsteps of Microsoft icons Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer.

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