Google settles $118 million gender-discrimination lawsuit

Google has agreed to settle a $118 million class-action lawsuit for alleged discrimination against 15,500 women across 236 job titles starting in September 2013. As part of the settlement, the company is required to have outside experts examine its hiring practices and review the company’s “pay-equity studies,” according to a press release from Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP and Altshuler Berzon LLP.

The complaint was originally filed in 2017 by three former Google employees who, court documents show, alleged the search giant had violated California’s Equal Pay Act by paying women less than their male counterparts for performing similar jobs. The settlement said the company had “assigned women to lower levels than it assigned men, and that Google had failed to pay all wages due to employees upon their separation of employment.” The fourth plaintiff joined the suit later, the New York Times reported. The terms of the settlement are now pending approval by a judge.

“As a woman who’s spent her entire career in the tech industry, I’m optimistic that the actions Google has agreed to take as part of this settlement will ensure more equity for women,” Holly Pease, one of the plaintiffs, said in a statement released by her lawyers.

As part of the settlement, Google didn’t admit to any wrongdoing, according to the Wall Street Journal, and in an emailed statement to HR Brew, spokeswoman Shannon Newberry said: “While we strongly believe in the equity of our policies and practices, after nearly five years of litigation, both sides agreed that resolution of the matter, without any admission or findings, was in the best interest of everyone, and we’re very pleased to reach this agreement.”

Google often emphasizes its “inclusive” workplace culture but has faced scrutiny for what some have alleged is a failure to live up to those ideals. Last year, three ex-Googlers sued the company, alleging its work with US Customs and Border Protection during the Trump era violated the company’s “don’t be evil” motto, amounting to a breach of contract. The company fired the three workers, along with another not involved in the suit, in 2019 for “clear and repeated violations” of data security policies, NPR reported.

A bigger, discriminatory landscape. Google isn’t the only major tech firm dealing with claims of unequal pay. A lawsuit alleging that Twitter underpaid female software engineers failed to gain class-action status in 2018, while another suit against Oracle may meet the same fate after a judge issued a tentative ruling that would strip plaintiffs of class-action status last week.

In September 2021, video-game giant Activision Blizzard agreed to an $18 million settlement with the US Equal Opportunity Employment Commission after a three-year-long agency investigation alleged sexual harassment and pregnancy discrimination, and another suit brought by California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) last July alleges that women employed by Activision Blizzard in the state were “subjected to gender discrimination and sexual harassment.”

The issue, of course, extends beyond tech: Earlier this month, roughly 68,000 employees of Sterling Jewelers, the company that owns Jared and Kay Jewelers agreed to settle a $175 million class-action lawsuit accusing the corporation of paying and promoting women less than men, the Washington Post reported.—SB

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