The company is expected to pay more than $ 2.5 million to approximately 5,500 employees and job seekers who were allegedly poorly compensated or discriminated against by hiring.
The agreement resolves allegations that the company had discriminated against Asian women and candidates for engineering positions in some of its West Coast offices. The Department also reportedly found wage gaps that disadvantaged women in software engineering positions.
“We believe that everyone should be paid based on the work they do, not who they are, and invest a lot to make our hiring and compensation processes fair and impartial,” a Google spokesman said in a statement to CNN Business. “We are pleased to have resolved this issue related to the allegations of the 2014-2017 audits and to continue to focus on diversity and equity and to support our people in a way that allows them to do the best job possible. “.
As part of the deal, Google will pay more than $ 1.3 million to compensate approximately 2,500 software engineers who allegedly experienced wage discrimination, according to the Department of Labor. And it will also pay more than $ 1.2 million to compensate job candidates who were not hired as a result of alleged discrimination in hiring.
A separate $ 1.25 million fund will be established for five years of pay equity adjustments for Google engineering employees working in Mountain View, California; two offices in the Seattle area; and New York.
“Google agreed to proactively improve future compliance and review its current policies, procedures and practices related to recruitment, compensation; conduct analysis; and take corrective action to ensure non-discrimination,” the department said in a statement. .