Tech giant also agrees to review annual pay equity audits
Google has agreed to pay $28 million to settle a high-profile class action alleging that the tech company favoured White and Asian employees when it comes to pay.
Judge Charles Adams of the Santa Clara County Superior Court granted preliminary approval of the settlement last week, according to Gunn Coble LLP, a Los Angeles civil rights law firm that represented the plaintiffs.
Under the settlement, Google also agreed to work with a labour economist and an industrial or occupational psychologist to review its annual pay equity audits.
They would also review the recommendations to address the allegations raised in the lawsuit.
Ana Cantu, who identifies as Mexican and racially Indigenous, led the class-action suit in 2021 for at least 6,632 people who were employed by Google between 15 February 2018 and 31 December 2024, according to Reuters.
The suit accused Google of paying employees who identified as Hispanic, Latinx, Indigenous, Native American, American Indian, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islands and/or Alaska Native less than their White, Asian, or Asian American employees for carrying out similar work.
According to Gunn Coble, Cantu relied on a 2022 employee internal pay spreadsheet that leaked, showing that Google's diverse employees had lower compensation than White, Asian and Asian-American workers.
Cathy Coble, founding partner of Gunn Coble LLP, commended Cantu for raising the case against Google.
"She risked her career to raise race/ethnicity pay disparity at Google," Coble said in a statement.
"I also want to acknowledge the bravery of both the diverse and ally Googlers who self-reported their pay and leaked that data to the media, enabling us to push for discovery of the data necessary to support this class action. Suspected pay inequity is too easily concealed without this kind of collective action from employees."
Google confirmed the lawsuit in a statement to Reuters. However, it continued to deny the allegations.
"We continue to disagree with the allegations that we treated anyone differently and remain committed to paying, hiring and leveling all employees fairly," a Google spokesperson told the news outlet.
Google is one of the major organisations in the United States that pulled back on its diversity efforts.
In February, it was reported that the tech giant is ending its diversity hiring targets, while also removing a line in its annual SEC report that stressed its commitment to "making diversity, equity, and inclusion part of everything we do."
Google's withdrawal comes amid a wave of corporate withdrawal on DEI in the United States following a shifting legal landscape and rising conservative backlash.
US President Donald Trump, in one of his earliest executive orders for his second term, also placed on leave all employees working on DEI offices.
Beth Gunn, founding partner of Gunn Coble LLP, said she hopes California will continue taking the lead in enacting and enforcing civil rights laws despite the current national political climate.
"Committing to closing the loopholes allowing discriminatory wage gaps to continue will stop losses of millions of dollars in employee take-home pay and tax revenue to the State, and ensure that workers of diverse races and ethnicities are equitably compensated," Gunn said in a statement.
"We hope this result will prompt California employers to seriously commit to this goal."
