Google to pay $118M in gender discrimination lawsuit

Google has lost a landmark class action lawsuit centered around discriminatory practice in the workplace, and has been asked to pay $118 million to 15,500 women who brought the case. Additionally, Google is required to hire an independent labor economist evaluate its hiring practices and pay equity.

The gender discrimination at Google was brought to light in 2017 when three female employees filed a compliant under California's Equal Pay Act, claiming that they were paid $17,000 less than male counterparts.

They also alleged that Google locks women into lower career tracks with lower pay and bonuses compared to male counterparts. They won class-action status for their case last year, which led to the current settlement.

The victory, first reported by Bloomberg, comes amidst gender discrimination class action lawsuits that have failed against other big tech companies in the recent past. Lawsuits against both Microsoft and Twitter have failed in the last decade, while another lawsuit against Oracle is under threat of losing their class action classification after a judge said that a lawsuit with over 3,000 employees in 125 different jobs would be "unmanageable" in trial.

“While we strongly believe in the equity of our policies and practices, after nearly five years of litigation, both sides agreed that resolution of the matter, without any admission or findings, was in the best interest of everyone, and we’re very pleased to reach this agreement,” Google said in a statement to The Verge.

I’m optimistic that the actions Google has agreed to take as part of this settlement will ensure more equity for women,” Holly Pease, a plaintiff in the case, said in a statement.