The US Department of Labor has announced that Google has agreed to pay $3,8 million following allegations of discrimination against Asian women.
The largest part of that sum will be used to pay compensation for 2.565 women employed at Google as engineers, as well as for 3.000 candidates of Asian origin who were not selected for those positions, the Ministry of Labor stated last night.
Google said the discrimination was discovered during a routine internal review and that the company agreed to pay the amount to remedy the situation, while denying that it had broken the law.
"We think everyone should be paid for the work they do, not who they are, and we're investing heavily to make the hiring and compensation process fair," a Google spokeswoman told Agence France-Presse.
She said that Google is now analyzing salary data and looking for irregularities and expressed her satisfaction that the issues of alleged discrimination are being resolved.
According to the Ministry of Labor, an analysis revealed differences in the salaries of employees at Google centers in Silicon Valley and in the American state of Washington in the northwest of the USA.
A US Department of Labor official said in a statement that wage discrimination remains a systemic problem.
The ministry also found disparities in IT engineering recruitment rates, which were unfavorable for female and Asian applicants.
As part of the agreed agreement, Google will review the rules, procedures and practices of employment and compensation payments, the ministry said.
Google's problems come amid accusations of sexist culture and the male-dominated technology industry of Silicon Valley.
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