Google has agreed to a $ 3.8 million settlement with federal regulators to unfairly pay allegations that they underpaid female software engineers by women and Asian candidates for software engineering roles.
The settlement is being broken up into three pools, the U.S. Department of Labor announced Monday. As part of the agreement, approximately 2,500 women currently working in engineering positions for Google will receive a total of $ 1.35 million, or approximately $ 527 per employee.
An additional $ 1.23 million in reimbursement, about $ 414 per person, will be hired after a pool of just under 3,000 applicants for ‘software engineering jobs not hired’. The remaining $ 1.25 million is reserved for salary adjustments for employees currently working as software engineers, based at Google’s offices in California, New York and Washington State.
“Pay discrimination remains a systemic issue. Employers must conduct regular payroll audits to ensure their compensation systems promote equal opportunities,” said Jenny R. Yang, director of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, when announcing the settlement.
The settlement covers the period from 2014 to 2017; the DOL discovered the discrepancies during routine audits that companies that regularly work as federal contractors or suppliers go through.
“We believe that everyone should be paid based on the work they do, not who they are, and that we should invest heavily to make our hiring and compensation processes fair and unbiased,” Google said in a statement. “We are delighted that we have resolved this issue related to the allegations of the 2014-2017 audits and that we remain committed to diversity and fairness and to supporting our people in a way that enables them to do their best. to do work. “
The agreement with the Labor Department is separate from the lawsuit that women who worked at Google in 2017 allege that Google discriminated against female employees, as well as their jobs. Nor is it related to the shareholder lawsuits that Google settled last year over handling allegations of sexual harassment.