Google in hot water: Three ex-employees file lawsuit for pay gap

This year has been good for Google so far as it introduced many new updates for its various products for users across the globe. However, one issue has been haunting the tech company and that is its sexist culture and pay discrimination against women. This issue has taken a new turn as three former female Google employees named Kelli Wisuri, Holly Pease and Kelly Ellis, have filed a lawsuit against the company for alleged gender-based discrimination and pay gap.

The lawsuit also states that Google systematically pays women employees lower compensation and also stations women in jobs and departments where there is less chance of moving up in rank. The company has, however, denied the allegations. These allegations which the women have made resemble those that the US Department of Labor made against the company. Government’s statistical analysis show “systemic compensation disparities against women pretty much across the entire workforce.”

Kelly Ellis, one of the three plaintiffs in the case had a four year of working experience in the company as a software engineer but was placed “into Level 3 on her compensation ladder”— a level which is designated to new college graduates, as mentioned in the report. Kelly resigned from the company in July 2014.

Tech company hasn’t recovered from the controversy which started when one of its engineers wrote a meme, stating that the biological difference between men and women is the main cause of gender gap at tech industry. And now this, it turns out that company is going to face some more serious damage in the future as well in context to its approach towards male and female workers’ pay gap.

Much to amusement, a spreadsheet obtained by NY Times reveals that there is gender pay gap at Google. However, the company has argued against the spreadsheet report. Eileen Naughton, Google’s Vice President of people operations, said that it is possible that a nontechnical person may be same in position as Engineer but will be paid less nonetheless because “there is a premium paid in all markets for highly technical talent.”