Oops! Google Realizes It Paid Men less than Women for the Same Job

How many times have you been scrolling through the news and seen that some company is paying men more than they pay women who do the same job?

Well, recently, according to the company’s own internal pay audit, it seems that Google has been caught in a gender-discriminating scandal: they are paying women more than their male counterparts. Google was paying male Level 4 Software Engineers less than female in the same role, to the tune of 10,677 employees.

To fix this discrepancy, Google shelled out $9.7 million in pay adjustments.  TechCrunch has the details:

It’s not clear how many of the employees who received pay adjustments were men (TechCrunch reached out to Google about this, but the company declined to share any additional data), but Google does cite the underpaying of men as a reason why the company paid more in adjustments for 2018 than in 2017. But The New York Times reports men received a disproportionately higher percentage of the money.

For 2017, Google paid just $270,000 to close any wage gaps for 228 employees across six job groups. Google also cited its new-hire analysis as a reason why the company had to make more adjustments. The analysis, which entailed looking for discrepancies in offers to new hires, accounted for 49 of the total amount spent on adjustments.

“Our pay equity analysis ensures that compensation is fair for employees in the same job, at the same level, location and performance,” Google Lead Analyst for Pay Equity and People Analytics Lauren Barbato wrote in a blog post. “But we know that’s only part of the story. Because leveling, performance ratings, and promotion impact pay, this year, we are undertaking a comprehensive review of these processes to make sure the outcomes are fair and equitable for all employees.”

I want everyone to get paid for their worth.

However, I find it richly ironic that Google — this self-described arbiter of All Things Good in The World — was caught in such discrimination.

Remember the “all hands meeting” filmed after the 2016 Presidential election in which the company’s leadership was so dismayed by the outcome that they promised to try to thwart the newly elected President Donald Trump’s agenda? One leader broke into sobs.  (It can be watched in full here.) The company’s leadership was bereft and assumed that most in the room are disappointed by the election results and were “scared” and “afraid.”

Maybe the guys in the room were just scared and afraid of the political climate at their company that apparently demands — or at the very least assumes — that the workers all have the exact same political beliefs.  Maybe they were afraid to speak out for fear that they’d get fired like James Damore.

Either way, I’m glad the company is finally evening out the salaries.  However, I’m not holding my breath that this will create a much-needed humility in the organization’s leaders.

Hat Tip: Tech Crunch

Image Credit: Picryl