LinkedIn agrees to pay $1.8 million to female workers over pay discrimination claims
This was after the DOL claimed to be paid less than their male counterparts

LinkedIn agrees to pay $1.8 million to female workers who claimed pay discrimination based on gender.
Source: The Seattle Times

Reports specify how LinkedIn has finally complied to pay $1.8 million to almost 700 female workers in California. This was following the Department of Labor accused them of subjecting to “systemic, gender-based pay discrimination.”

Women who worked at the online networking platform’s San Francisco and Sunnyvale headquarters of California were reportedly not paid as much as their male counterparts. In San Francisco, they were from engineering and marketing jobs, and in the engineering and product jobs at Sunnyvale. These details were disclosed by a statement published by the Department of Labor on Tuesday, May 3.

LinkedIn was unsuccessful in complying with an Executive Order by taking part in such discrimination. According to DOL, this order allegedly forbids organisations from actively or passively discriminating against employees on the basis of gender. However, LinkedIn denied being in violation of this particular order.

“While we have agreed to settle this matter, we do not agree with the government’s claims; LinkedIn pays and has paid its employees fairly and equitably when comparing similar work,” the tech giant said in a statement on Monday.

The findings of the DOL came up from a routine study by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP). Reportedly, they were looking into the compensation policies and rules of LinkedIn from March 1, 2015 to March 1, 2017. They stated that post controlling for other aspects, the company paid certain female workers at a ‘statistically significant’ lesser rate than the male workers. If proven, they said, it could end up in the ‘violation of the Executive order.’ These findings are visibly from sources including employment records, policies and compensation information for every employee. Along with it, interviews with the managerial, non-managerial and HR staff.

LinkedIn is set to pay about $1.75 million in back wages, with over $50,000 in interest to 686 workers, according to a conciliation agreement between the DOL and the tech giant. Moreover, it would conduct an internal review, along with making salary adjustments in the event of finding compensation to be biased. Jane Suhr, the regional director of OFCCP for San Francisco gave in statement on the matter. She said that the agreement would make sure that company ‘better understands its obligations as a federal contractor,’ following them later on.

Moreover, LinkedIn stated that its 2021 equal pay analysis revealed that globally its female employees earned $0.999 for every $1 earned by the male employees. Additionally, it said that it regularly evaluated it pay practices make sure of fairness in the compensation to the workers. It specified how females make up about 42% of its global leadership. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, full-time female workers in the US approximately earned 16.9% less than males as of 2021.