Google to pay $2.5million to women and Asian employees and applicants
Google to pay $2.5million to more than 5,500 underpaid female engineers and overlooked Asian applicants to settle race and sex discrimination case
- Google will pay $1.35million to 2,500 female engineers in the settlement
- Another $1.23million will go to 1,700 women and Asian unsuccessful applicants
- The settlement brings an end to discrimination allegations in 2014 to 2018
Google will pay $2.6million to 5,500 female and Asian employees and applicants who claim they were underpaid and overlooked for jobs.
The internet giant announced the settlement on Monday to resolve the four-year-old allegations in California and Washington state.
The settlement closes a case the Labor Department brought as part of its periodic reviews of the pay practices at federal government contractors such as Google.
Google will pay $2.6million to 5,500 female and Asian employees and job applicants who claim they were underpaid and overlooked
The inquiry resulted in accusations that during a period spanning from 2014 to 2017, Google paid female engineers less than men in similar positions.
The pay discrepancies were cited in several Google offices in its home state of California, as well as at locations in Seattle and Kirkland, Washington.
Google had fiercely contested the allegations as unfounded before reaching the settlement without acknowledging any wrongdoing.
‘We believe everyone should be paid based upon the work they do, not who they are, and invest heavily to make our hiring and compensation processes fair and unbiased,’ Google said Monday.
The company also said it has conducted internal audits during the past years to address any inequities in the pay of its male and female employees.
Nevertheless, the settlement will require Google to pay $1.35million to more than 2,500 of its female engineers to compensate them for past discrimination alleged by the Labor Department.
The pay discrepancies were cited in several Google offices in its home state of California, as well as at locations in Seattle and Kirkland, Washington (pictured)
Another $1.23million is earmarked for more than 1,700 women and Asians who unsuccessfully applied for engineering jobs at Google.
The settlement also requires Google to contribute $250,000 annually for five years to create a reserve to cover any necessary adjustments still needed in the future.
‘Regardless of how complex or the size of the workforce, we remain committed to enforcing equal opportunity laws to ensure non-discrimination and equity in the workforce,’ said Jane Suhr, who oversees the Labor Department’s federal contract compliance programs in San Francisco.
The settlement will barely put a dent in Google or its corporate parent Alphabet Inc., which generates more than $130billion in annual revenue.
But news of settlement may further blemish Google’s once cherished reputation as an employer that pampers its workers to the point of spoiling them with cushy paychecks, free food and other plush perks.
In recent years, more of Google’s own employees have been openly blasting management’s practices, including allegations of coddling powerful male executives who harassed female employees.
More recently, thousands of Google employees have protested the December departure of an artificial intelligence researcher who says she was fired over a research paper that didn’t sit well with the company.
The growing unrest inside Google culminated in hundreds of employees forming a labor union in last month, a rarity in the tech industry.
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