The technology Google creates might be progressive, but it’s gender pay gap is looking pretty archaic.
The technology company is being accused of discriminating against its female employees by the United States Department of Labor, according to the Guardian. The department, as part of an ongoing investigation, has collect information it says suggests Google’s salaries for women violate federal employment laws.
“We found systemic compensation disparities against women pretty much across the entire workforce,” Janette Wipper, a Labor Department regional director, testified in court in San Francisco on Friday.
The California-based company, though, reportedly has denied the allegations, and recently said it’s closed its wage gap.
While Google wouldn’t be the first tech company to have diversity problems, its issues might be especially severe.
“The investigation is not complete, but at this point the department has received completing evidence of very significant discrimination against women in the most common positions at Google,” Janet Herold, regional solicitor for the department, told the Guardian.
“The government’s analysis at this point indicates that discrimination against women in Google is quite extreme, even in this industry.”
The allegations came to light Friday during a hearing as part of a lawsuit the Department of Labor filed against Google in January, seeking to get the company to provide the government with salary data and documents, according to the Guardian.
As a federal contractor, Google is required to allow the government to inspect information about its compliance with equal opportunity laws, though the Labor Department claims it has repeatedly refused to do so.
Thumbnail photo via Flickr/:D
