Google Told to Handover Salary Details in Discrimination Case

Google has been accused of systematically discriminating against women, and has been asked to hand over its salary records to the government in an ongoing investigation by the US Department of Labour.

It is to give the government 2014 data, and the contact information for thousands of employees so that some can be interviewed. The ruling was made public on Sunday.

The Department of Labour (Dol) had discovered in their words an “extreme” gender pay gap in an initial audit.

“The department’s preliminary findings are very worrying here. It is incredibly important not just to the department but to taxpayers and to the women at Google that the investigation proceed immediately,” said Janet Herold, a regional solicitor at the Department of Labour.

Google denies that it discriminates against women. It has said in a blog post, that it has closed its gender pay gap globally and would be happy to comply with the order.

Google had expressed discomfort in giving away its data, saying that it would be a breach of privacy for its employees. The company’s lawyers even lobbied to get the case thrown out last month. It said that it was financially burdensome to hand over all of the data.

Google denies that it discriminates against women. It has said in a blog post, that it has closed its gender pay gap globally and would be happy to comply with the order. In its own analysis, it has found that there is no pay gap.

“It’s not enough for Google to say it’s committed to gender pay equity or other diversity initiatives,” said Janet Herold.

Also Read: Google Can Use Artificial Intelligence To Identify Breast Cancer