Disha Mitra
Googles to pay $118 million to female staff who earned less than their male colleagues to settle lawsuit.
Source: Yahoo Finance
This week, court documents reveal how Alphabet Inc’s Google has agreed to pay a sum of $118 million to over 15,500 employees. This is for the settlement of a longstanding lawsuit over claims of gender discrimination, along with pay equity in the company.
The details were disclosed in a press release this week by the legal firms of the plaintiffs, Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernsteon and Altshuler Berzon. It stated how this settlement covers female workers in about 236 job titles in the state of California since September 14, 2013.
The female staff reportedly worked across various divisions and levels, with their average compensation coming to around $7,600. The lawsuit filed in September 2017 is followed by this particular agreement. The suit was filed by former employees of the company Holly Pease, Kelly Ellis, Heidi Lamar and Kelli Wisuri.
In the initial suit, it was specified how Lamar, a preschool teacher at the search giant’s children centre, received a pay of $18.51 per hour. Significantly, this was opposed to a male counterpart getting $21 per hour who had fewer qualifications and comparatively less experience.
Further accusations:
Last year, Google was accused of paying its female staff $17,000 less than male employees annually who were even at the same job, as part of the same lawsuit. Originally, they were seeking about $600 million. As specified by the filing, the settlement includes the provision for an independent industrial organisational psychologist to analyse the hiring practices, along with pay equity of the search giant.
One of the former employees, Kelly Ellis, was a software engineer for approximately four years at Google’s Mountain View headquarters. She stated how she hopes that this agreement goes on to signify a turning point in the company’s practices.
On the other hand, former employee Holly Pease gave a statement on the matter. She said how being a woman who had spent her whole ‘career in the tech industry,’ she is ‘optimistic that the actions ‘ the search giant has agreed to take in the case would ensure ‘more equity for women.’ She added how Google has ‘led the tech industry’ since its founding, and has the chance to ‘lead the change’ to make sure of inclusion and ‘equity for women in tech.’
A preliminary approval hearing is set for Tuesday, June 21. The tech giant did not acknowledge any requests made for a comment on the situation as of now.