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Google has discriminated against its female employees, according to the US Department of Labor (DoL), which said it had evidence of "systemic compensation disparities".
As part of an ongoing DoL investigation, the government has collected information that suggests the internet search giant is violating federal employment laws with its salaries for women, agency officials said.
"We found systemic compensation disparities against women pretty much across the entire workforce," Janette Wipper, a DoL regional director, testified in court in San Francisco on Friday.
Reached for comment Friday afternoon, Janet Herold, regional solicitor for the DoL, said: "The investigation is not complete, but at this point the department has received compelling evidence of very significant discrimination against women in the most common positions at Google headquarters."
Herold added: "The government's analysis at this point indicates that discrimination against women in Google is quite extreme, even in this industry."
Google strongly denied the accusations of inequities, claiming it did not have a gender pay gap.
Source: The Guardian
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday April 11 2017, @02:29AM (5 children)
Where do you work that the people's salaries are commonly known? Our HR creature is very careful at every discussion of pay to tell you "Don't tell anyone else what you're getting!" Like, if you're making minimum wage, and get a 2 cent raise, it should be top secret, because all those other minimum wage flunkies will want the same 2 cents. Fek - a 2 cent or even 2% raise across the board will break the company? And, does that minimum wage flunkie REALLY believe that he's getting something special? Something special would be a 50% raise! A raise of 50% over minimum wage would put the average head of household up to the poverty line! THAT is special!
I've never visited a Google campus, but I'm willing to bet that few of their employees are at liberty to discuss wages.
(Score: 2) by slinches on Tuesday April 11 2017, @05:11AM (3 children)
Minimum wage jobs aren't intended to support a family. They are there to be a first job for young adults to begin working and gain some experience before starting a career. If those types of jobs aren't allowed to exist, then how will kids work their way through college or afford vocational training?
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday April 11 2017, @01:24PM (2 children)
Doesn't matter what they are "intended" to do. Facts are facts - corporate America forgot where they came from, and sold out their country, shipping good paying jobs to Outback Fuckistan, where people will work like a dog just to put food on the table. Do you know where your Levi's come from?
But, do you know what's WORSE than minimum wage? All those jobs that are exempt from minimum wage laws. Food service and wait staff first and foremost. Mysogenistic laws that ensure a single mother can never make ends meet if they rely on waitress work.
While everyone is worried about some prima donna at Google not getting as much money as the guy who was hired at the same time - NO ONE worries about women struggling to make ends meet at a job that doesn't even pay minimum wage.
(Score: 2) by slinches on Tuesday April 11 2017, @05:28PM (1 child)
What are you talking about with misogynist laws against waiters/servers? That's a job that is roughly evenly split between men and women, so even if the laws were put in place to harm them, it wouldn't be misogynistic. And secondly, the laws are in place because gratuity is a substantial portion of their income (often more than their base pay, much of which is unreported tax-free cash income) and applying minimum wage laws on top would severely distort the job market which includes non-tip based positions. So we need to either keep the laws as they are or change them to apply to wait-staff, but somehow get rid of tips.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday April 12 2017, @12:47AM
You've gotten the cart before the horse. Have you ever noticed that tipping doesn't take place in most of the rest of the world?
The REASON we tip wait staff, is that we exempted them from minimum wage laws when the minimum wage was dreamed up. Corruption reigned then, as always. Lobbyists worked hard to specifically exempt farm workers, food service, and wait staff from the laws, claiming that each of those groups received certain benefits on the job. When minimum wage was created, we established an entire separate class of workers who could be exploited independently of all other workers.
https://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/history/flsa1938.htm [dol.gov]
The fact that the US has established a custom of "tipping" over the past 80 years or so doesn't make an inequitable wage law moral or just. The fact that most people in the US can't remember, and haven't been taught, how the law came to be, doesn't make that law moral or just. The US was slow to adopt minimum wages, just as it was slow to outlaw slavery. When it did adopt minimum wage, the US got things all wrong.
There is no justification for any exemption to minimum wage laws.
And, historically, as applied to wait staff, the law is indeed misogynistic. Male waiters have historically been paid more than females. Males have always had more choices, and males often move on from waiting to other work. Females often spend their entire careers in waitress work.
Read up on the history of the law before you tell me how fair it is.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Tuesday April 11 2017, @03:29PM
They most certainly are. HR will always *suggest*, sometimes quite strongly, that you do not discuss your salary. But legally they cannot prohibit you from doing so, nor can they punish you for doing so. I'd hope people working for Google are intelligent enough to realize this and to not be intimidated by some lying HR drone...assuming they actually wanted to of course.