Even large organisations like Google, often idealised as an employer of choice, have room for improvement.
Google has agreed to pay $3.8 million to 5,500 employees and applicants to settle charges of pay discrimination. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) identified pay disparities during a routine compliance evaluation. The gaps, the agency said, affected female employees in software engineering positions. It also detected hiring rate differences that disadvantaged female and Asian applicants for software engineering positions at several of Google’s locations.
In addition to back pay and interest, the company also agreed to set aside $1.25 million in pay-equity adjustments over the next five years for employees in engineering positions. Google also agreed to enhance future compliance; review its current policies, procedures and practices related to hiring and compensation; and conduct analyses and take corrective action to ensure non-discrimination.
Google also made headlines again recently when several hundred of its employees formed a union — a rare move for the tech industry. More than 500 workers at Google’s parent company joined the advocacy organisation.
The union will be the structure that ensures Google workers can actively push for real changes at the company, from the kinds of contracts Google accepts to employee classification to wage and compensation issues.
Pay discrimination
While this case is a US-based case, it’s represents a learning opportunity for Australian talent professionals. Australia’s national gender pay gap has hovered between 13.9% and 19% for the past two decades. There has been a decrease of 0.3 of a percentage point in the gender pay gap since November 2018 (14.1%).
Between 1999 and 2019 the national gender pay gap was:
- lowest in November 2019, at 13.9%
- highest in November 2014, at 18.5%.
If the work is equal or substantially similar, the employer should investigate to find out whether there is a legitimate justification for the pay disparity such as meaningful differences in education, experience, training or performance; if no such justification exists, a remedy could include an adjustment in pay.
Employers should also be aware that many states and localities prohibit employers from asking applicants pay history questions because reliance on prior pay is thought to perpetuate wage disparities for women and minorities.