Google pays out in discrimination lawsuit

It’s another bad headline for the firms trying to right the record on discrimination.

Equal pay for equal work

Google has agreed to pay out more than $118 million to more than 15,500 female employees who were paid less than their male counterparts. The case, filed in 2017, covers female employees in around 236 different job titles, who were discriminated against by around $17,000 a year less than their male equivalents.

And when we say ‘equivalents’ – we’re talking about male colleagues who were less qualified and less experienced. As documents show, a female preschool teacher working in Google’s preschool center was paid $18.51 an hour, whereas a male teacher received about $21.

The techy glass ceiling

This is yet another case of tech firms of the future not quite getting it right today. While this case involves Google, other giants like Tesla are also set to dish millions to workers suing the firm for racism in the production chain. In this day and age, we should expect better.

As part of the settlement, an organizational psychologist will be appointed to Google to analyze the firm’s hiring practices and pay equity. Google, for its part, has said it’s happy to revise its practices in line with new recommendations.

So for all its progressive PR, Google clearly still has some way to go before it can really claim it’s leading the charge on progressive working.