Google has agreed to pay $118 million to settle a class action lawsuit that alleges the company underpaid female employees. The agreement will release Google from claims that it "paid women in Covered Positions less than it paid men for substantially similar work, that Google assigned women to lower levels than it assigned men, and that Google failed to pay all wages due to employees upon their separation of employment," the settlement says.
The settlement covers about 15,500 women who have worked for Google in California since 2013, the plaintiffs' law firm said in an announcement on Saturday. Four named plaintiffs will get separate payouts: $75,000 for lead plaintiff Kelly Ellis and $50,000 each for the other three, in addition to their regular share from the net settlement fund. The settlement class covers a wide range of workers with 236 job titles.
[...] Google violated the California Equal Pay Act and other state laws, plaintiffs alleged in the gender-discrimination lawsuit. The settlement is pending a judge's approval in San Francisco County Superior Court.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 15 2022, @03:38AM (5 children)
That's what, $845/year/plaintif? Most of which goes to the lawyers I'm sure. That's what they call the cost of doing business.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 15 2022, @04:11AM (4 children)
15500 x $50k = $775m
Versus $118m fine. I'm not good with numbers.... is that a win?
(Score: 2) by Booga1 on Wednesday June 15 2022, @04:18AM (1 child)
The lead plaintiffs get a bit of money. The rest get a pittance. From a business perspective, they have no reason to treat people fairly when the eventual payout is less than what they should have been paying.
This ruling is basically hush money. "Take this token payout and shut up, or take your chances and hire a lawyer to start from scratch. Good luck, because our lawyers are paid for already on retainer. It really doesn't matter what we have them working on."
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 15 2022, @06:37AM
Part of the settlement includes Google using an outside auditor to ensure their pay is equal going forward. If the wage gap is real (this is a settlement, which means it does not imply the truth of the claim) then this will improve pay equality for everyone.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Barenflimski on Wednesday June 15 2022, @05:01AM
No, you've got it. They call that, "California Math."
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 15 2022, @11:34AM
No, $175k goes to the three who initiated the settlement, and the balance goes to the rest, so $118M/15497 = $7600, and if the $118M is the total amount, then take out about a third for the lawyers, so you end up with $79M spread over those 15,497, so about $5k each, perhaps.
(Score: 2) by Barenflimski on Wednesday June 15 2022, @05:04AM (2 children)
It doesn't seem fair that 3 of them get less than the one. Is this when they all start to eat each others tails?
(Score: 5, Touché) by Freeman on Wednesday June 15 2022, @03:43PM
Please note the plaintiffs are the people, not the lawyers. So, the lead plaintiff is the person who came forward about it first, I assume. The three others are other women who came forward and the other women who signed up for the class action suit get approximately 5,500.
So, the attorneys are getting up to $32 million dollars from the settlement.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 15 2022, @04:15PM
I imagine it is in recognition of the amount of effort and risk they took. This is me making things up, but imagine:
1) Woman one recognizes the problem, spends the time to find a lawyer, describe the situation, asks around, and has the risk of being "the nail which sticks up." She spends say 500 hours over the course of all of this.
2) The other three women hear about it, go "me too." They still have risk, but they aren't the literal first, so less likely to be pilloried by the company and the public. Much of the initial work is done, and they spend 250 hours each over the course of this.
3) All the other women in the class literally do nothing. They get a letter in the mail which they ignore.
Would it be "fair" if all of them get the same payout? (For $1000? Go them?)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 16 2022, @04:04PM
Maybe next time don't hire wahmen.