The Google New York office building in lower Manhattan.
Google, a major U.S. technology company, has recently been accused of discriminating against women and Asians. The company recently agreed to pay $3.8 million in compensation in order to settle the case.
On Monday evening (Feb. 1), the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) released a statement saying that Google has agreed to pay more than 5,500 employees a total of $3.8 million to settle the case of alleged discrimination against female engineers and Asian job applicants.
According to the Department of Labor, $2.6 million of the settlement is for payroll compensation. Of that amount, $1.35 million will be used to pay back pay and interest to 2,565 female engineers, with each employee expected to receive $527.50; the other $1.25 million will be paid as arrears and interest to 1,757 women and 1,219 Asian software engineer job applicants who were not hired because of discrimination, with each expected to receive $414.
As part of the settlement agreement, Google also agreed to review the company’s rules, procedures and practices in hiring and determining salaries, among other things.
Google has recently admitted to the outside world that the company has a “disparity of treatment” problem, but denied that there is anything illegal.
According to a Department of Labor release, the charges against Google stem from a routine review of Google by the Department of Labor. In the review, the Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) found that Google’s Silicon Valley and Washington State offices had significant gender disparities in determining the pay of software engineers, and that the 2,783 female employees on its software engineering team were paid significantly less than male engineers in comparable positions.
OFCCP also found a “hiring ratio gap” at Google. For example, in 2017, Google discriminated against women and Asians in hiring for software engineer positions in San Francisco, California, Sunnyvale, and Kirkland, Washington, putting them at a disadvantage when seeking the positions.
Jenny Yang, OFCCP director, noted that pay disparities at Google are a systemic problem.
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