Google‘s Pay Equity Analysis Reveals That More Often Male Employees Are Underpaid As Compared To Women 

Google on Monday (4 March) released an internal pay equity analysis that surprisingly revealed that it is underpaying its male employees as compared to their women counterparts for doing the same work.

According to the company blog post, Google conducted an annual pay-equity analysis in order to “look for unexplained differences in total compensation (salary, bonus, and equity) across demographic groups”.

The analysis covered 91 per cent of the company’s total workforce and excluded only those employees who work in a role with fewer than 30 other employees or employees representing fewer than five demographic groups.

In 2018, Google spent close to $10 million on effecting pay parity for over 10,000 employees last year.

In the blog post, Google attributed this payout, in part, to one specific job code: Level 4 Software Engineer, a particularly large category in the company. It estimated that close to 1 lakh employees are mapped to this job code.

“Within this job code, men were flagged for adjustments because they received less discretionary funds than women,” the company revealed.

“Our pay equity analysis ensures that compensation is fair for employees in the same job, at the same level, location and performance,” the blog post read.

“But we know that’s only part of the story. Because leveling, performance ratings and promotion impact pay, this year, we are undertaking a comprehensive review of these processes to make sure the outcomes are fair and equitable for all employees”.

Google acknowledged that its annual study does not offer a complete picture of how women and underrepresented minorities are compensated within the company.

“Our pay equity analysis ensures that compensation is fair for employees in the same job, at the same level, location and performance. But we know that's only part of the story," Google's lead analyst for pay equity, people analytics, Lauren Barbato, said in the blog post.

Google also said that it will conduct a comprehensive review of its compensation process, examining factors beyond comparing the pay of people at the same level. Google will also consider raises from promotions and how it assigns a new employee's level of seniority within a position, a process known as leveling.

In 2017, Google spent $270,000 on 228 employees to correct systemic pay inequities.

Google is currently facing a class-action lawsuit in California that alleges widespread discrimination against female employees.

In 2017, Google was accused of gender pay discrimination by the US Department of Labour.