On September 14, 2017, three former employees of Google LLC (“Google”) filed a class action lawsuit accusing Google of systematically discriminating against women by paying female engineers less than their male counterparts. The class consisted of women who were employed by Google primarily as software engineers in California dating back to September 2013. In May 2021, Judge Andrew Y.S. Cheng of the San Francisco County Superior Court certified a class of approximately 15,500 current or former female Google employees.
Specifically, the lawsuit focused on Google’s alleged violations of the Equal Pay Act and Unfair Competition Law claiming that women in the same job position were paid less than men. The lawsuit alleged that men were placed in higher salary bands than women who had the same job title and performed substantially equal or similar work.
On October 25, 2022, the court granted final approval of the settlement in which Google agreed to pay $118 million to settle the class action lawsuit. As part of this settlement, the court approved class counsel’s request for $29.5 million in attorney’s fees. Additionally, as part of the terms of the settlement, Google agreed to retain both an independent third party expert who will further analyze Google’s hiring practices and an independent labor economist who will review the company’s pay equity studies. A third party administrator will allocate the settlement amounts based on an objective formula to each qualifying class member.
This lawsuit and the significant class action settlement award is a resounding wake up call for employers to examine pay equity within their organization. This is the time for all employers to review their pay practices and make sure that they are equitable, legal compliant and above reasonable scrutiny. This is a complicated analysis as salary variances will naturally occur based upon years of experience, educational qualifications, performance, ties to clients, tenure and possibly other significant factors specific to an employer’s industry.
The employment team at Gordon & Rees has significant experience assisting employers with their privileged pay equity analysis. We encourage you to reach out to the authors of this article and your trusted employment counsel at Gordon & Rees should you have any questions.