Google to pay $2.6 mn as settlement in job discrimination case

In a 4-year-old case brought by the Labour Department, Google has to pay US dollars 2.6 million to around 5,500 employees and past job applicants to resolve an allegation of job discrimination. World’s largest search giant is accused of discriminating against female engineers and Asians in California and Washington state, as they were paying female engineers less than men in similar positions from 2014 to 2017.

The settlement was announced on Monday by the Labour Department, as part its periodic reviews of the pay practices at federal government contractors such as Google. After noticing some disparities, Labour Department ordered an enquiry. As a result of this enquiry, various pay discrepancies were cited in several Google offices.

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In an official statement on Monday, Google said, “We believe everyone should be paid based upon the work they do, not who they are, and invest heavily to make our hiring and compensation processes fair and unbiased”.

The settlement also requires Google to contribute $250,000 annually for five years to create a reserve to cover any necessary adjustments still needed in the future.

The growing unrest inside Google resulted in the formation of a labour union by hundreds of workers last month.