Dozens of Google’s female employees are considering filing a lawsuit against the Alphabet-owned company over sexism and an alleged gender pay gap that exists within its ranks, according to one James Finberg, a San Francisco-based civil rights attorney who’s currently exploring that possibility. In a statement provided to The Guardian earlier today, Mr. Finberg revealed that he interviewed around a half of the 60 women who may participate in the potential lawsuit, with all of them believing they’re underpaid by the company compared to their male peers. Some claim they’re earning approximately $40,000 less than men with similar qualifications and on comparable positions on an annual basis, with one of the interviewees even saying that her yearly wages amount to two thirds of those of her male peers.
One of Google’s former senior managers told The Guardian that she once had a male subordinate with a higher salary than hers, noting how the men who were her peers were “earning tens of thousands of dollars more,” though it’s understood that the person in question won’t be part of the potential lawsuit against the firm that Mr. Finberg is currently exploring. The supposed gender pay gap at Google spans everything from base salary and cash bonuses to stock, the women claim, noting how the latter means that the disparity is increasing on an annual basis as the company’s shares are becoming more valuable over time. The same women are also said to have experienced sexism in the workplace, though details about their experiences have yet to be disclosed. The development comes amidst Google’s legal battle with the United States Department of Labor (DOL) that accused the firm of underpaying women earlier this year and may turn the tides in that case that that recently started moving in Google’s favor.
The Mountain View, California-based tech giant found itself in the middle of a massive controversy over the weekend after one of its employees posted an internal memo arguing that discrimination isn’t a problem at Google and stating that the company’s diversity policies are misguided because women aren’t as biologically predisposed to go into software engineering as men are, a notion that the vast majority of Googlers condemned. The author of the document, James Damore, was subsequently fired for violating the firm’s Code of Conduct and is also considering taking legal action against the Internet search giant.