Are Google Men Underpaid? Study Says Yes

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA -- Some may say this may be a first in American business.

When Google conducted a study recently to determine whether the company was underpaying women and members of minority groups, it surprisingly discovered that men were paid less money than women for doing similar work, the New York Times reported.

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 are seeing increasing pressure to address perceived wage discrimination in the workforce.

Although it didn't discourage it, the Mountain View company experienced a walkout a few months ago from female employees and their supporters over allegations the search engine giant protected and harbored executives accused of sexual harassment, and worse yet, provided them with golden parachutes as they left.

Gender inequality is a touchy topic at the company. The Labor Department is investigating whether the company systematically underpays women, the Times added. It has been sued by former employees who claim they were paid less than men with the same qualifications.

The pay study covered 91 percent of Google’s employees and compared their compensation — salaries, bonuses and company stock — within specific job types, job levels, performance and location.

A Google spokeswoman told Patch that in January the results of the annual pay equity analysis was shared with staffers. Upon release of the internal study, the company said it would undertake a comprehensive review of the aforementioned factors to make sure the outcomes were fair and equitable. On Monday, those findings were unveiled to the public.

The company chose to focus on the job and not the gender.

"Compensation should be based on what you do, not who you are. Every year, each employee’s compensation is modeled algorithmically, based on work-related inputs like the market rate for their job, their location, level and performance rating. If managers then want to apply discretion to adjust an employee’s modeled compensation, they must provide a clear rationale," said Lauren Barbato, lead analyst for Pay Equity, People Analytics.

The analytics can be found here.

See the full New York Times story at https://www.nytimes.com/2019/.