Department of Labor Accuses Google of "Extreme" Gender Pay Discrimination

By Daniel Politi, Slate

09 April 17

n the latest example of how Silicon Valley is often a men’s club, government investigators say Google severely underpays women who are doing similar work as men. The Department of Labor says it has uncovered evidence of “systemic compensation disparities” at the tech giant, reports the Guardian. The accusations have emerged as part of a lawsuit against Google for refusing to hand over data about its salaries to prove it is complying with labor laws.

“The investigation is not complete, but at this point the department has received compelling evidence of very significant discrimination against women in the most common positions at Google headquarters,” Janet Herold, a regional solicitor for the Department of Labor, said. “The government’s analysis at this point indicates that discrimination against women in Google is quite extreme, even in this industry.”

The accusation is particularly embarrassing for Google considering it came mere days after the company announced it had “closed the gender pay gap globally.” Still, Google vehemently denied the accusations. "Every year, we do a comprehensive and robust analysis of pay across genders and we have found no gender pay gap," Google said in a statement.

The accusations emerged as part of a lawsuit that the Department of Labor filed in January to force Google to turn over salary data. The government’s lawyers are citing its claims of discrimination in order to make the case that the company needs to be forced to turn over the documents. Google says the documents request is part of a “fishing expedition that has absolutely no relevance.”