Google Settles Gender Discrimination Lawsuit for $118M

Facts

• Concluding what started as a 2017 class-action suit in San Francisco Superior Court by three former female employees, Google agreed to settle accusations of gender discrimination for a total of $118M.¹
• The sum will go to more than 15k women after Google was accused of paying them less than their male counterparts for similar work, placing women in lower-salary jobs, and offering fewer opportunities for promotion.²
• Under the deal, an independent industrial-organizational psychologist will investigate Google's hiring practices and a third-party economist will review the big tech's internal pay-equity studies and make consequent recommendations.²
• A hearing on preliminary approval is scheduled for June 21 as it must be approved by a judge.³
• Although Google has continually denied accusations, the company said 'both sides agreed that resolution of the matter, without any admission or findings, was in the best interest of everyone'.⁴
• Gender discrimination suits have been filed against other tech giants, including Microsoft and Oracle.⁵

Sources: ¹Wall Street Journal, ²The Mercury News, ³Al Jazeera, ⁴Independent and ⁵New York Times.

Narratives

• Progressive narrative, as provided by Breitbart. With a number of similar lawsuits targetting pay gaps appearing against the likes of Microsoft and Twitter without much success, the settlement is a big win for women who feel intentionally underpaid and undervalued in tech companies.
• Conservative narrative, as provided by Verge. It's clear that woke culture is reaching a point where even its biggest advocates can't keep up. Google, an ultra-woke company, has fallen short of the rapidly increasing and inevitably unattainable demands of woke culture and American civil rights law.