Google has agreed to pay $118 million to settle a class-action gender discrimination complaint involving nearly 15,500 women. The lawsuit arose from a complaint filed by three women alleging that the corporation underpaid female employees.
The plaintiffs’ attorneys stated over the weekend that Google agreed to pay $118 million in a settlement covering around 15,500 women workers “in 236 job titles in California since September 14, 2013.”
The law firms also stated that “an independent third party expert will assess Google’s levelling-at-hire processes and an impartial labour economist will review Google’s pay equity studies.” In addition, an external “Settlement Monitor” will oversee the implementation of the agreement’s conditions “over the next three years.”
On Tuesday, June 21, a preliminary approval hearing has been scheduled. As of now, the tech titan has not responded to any demands for comment on the subject.
It all started when a case was filed in 2017 by three female Google employees who accused Google of violating gender discrimination regulations in California, such as the state’s Equal Pay Act. According to reports, the plaintiffs claimed that women working at Google earn $16,794 less per year than men. The ladies — Kelly Ellis, Holly Pease, and Kelli Wisuri – expressed an interest in turning the complaint into a class-action lawsuit at the time.
According to the complaint, Google “has discriminated and continues to discriminate against its female workers by deliberately giving them lower salaries than Google pays to male employees performing substantially similar work under similar conditions” according to the complaint.
According to David Neumark, an economist at the University of California, Google paid female employees $17,000 less than male employees in comparable positions.
Google’s payout isn’t the only one this month. On June 6, the firm agreed to pay $100 million to Illinois homeowners to settle a class-action lawsuit by Google Photos app users. The corporation was accused of violating state legislation by failing to notify consumers that it was collecting biometric data, such as facial geometry.
This is not Google’s only discrimination settlement. Google paid $2.5 million to settle a complaint filed by the US Department of Labor alleging that the tech giant discriminated against female and Asian candidates in February 2021.