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Google Finds It's Underpaying Many Men as It Addresses Wage Equity
When Google conducted a study recently to determine whether the company was underpaying women and members of minority groups, it found, to the surprise of just about everyone, that men were paid less money than women for doing similar work.
The study, which disproportionately led to pay raises for thousands of men, is done every year, but the latest findings arrived as Google and other companies in Silicon Valley face increasing pressure to deal with gender issues in the workplace, from sexual harassment to wage discrimination.
Gender inequality is a radioactive topic at Google. The Labor Department is investigating whether the company systematically underpays women. It has been sued by former employees who claim they were paid less than men with the same qualifications. And last fall, thousands of Google employees protested the way the company handles sexual harassment claims against top executives.
Critics said the results of the pay study could give a false impression. Company officials acknowledged that it did not address whether women were hired at a lower pay grade than men with similar qualifications.
In response to the study, pay raises were given out to 10,677 employees, with men accounting for 69% of Google's employees but an undisclosed higher percentage of the raises.
Google blog post. Also at Ars Technica, NPR, and TechCrunch.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by urza9814 on Tuesday March 05 2019, @07:39PM (1 child)
Yup, there's your problem. Does "pay grade" align with the job you're actually doing, or is it based on a bunch of random BS?
Around here you get that issue with H1Bs. Legally, you're not allowed to pay them less than you pay a citizen for doing the same work. But they're all consultants, and the consulting firm says gives them a different job title. So you'll have an H1B sitting right beside a citizen, on the same team, doing the exact same job, at the same client site, employed by the same consulting firm...and the H1B worker is getting $20k/year less because they've got a lower job ranking -- their actual placement within the client organization isn't part of the salary considerations. According to the consulting firm, these two people who are doing exactly the same thing all day long for years at a time are working different jobs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 08 2019, @12:19AM
A small company I used to work for hired/hires people from over seas under these programs and paid/pays them less. These workers did more work than some of the regular employees.