The US Labor Department announced Tuesday that it has
reached a settlement agreement with LinkedIn to resolve allegations of
“systemic, gender-based pay discrimination" in which women were paid less
than men in comparable job roles.
The settlement affects nearly 700 women who worked in
engineering, product or marketing roles from 2015 to 2017 at the company's
offices in San Francisco and Sunnyvale, California. It includes the time before
and after Microsoft's $26.2 billion acquisition of LinkedIn in 2016.
LinkedIn said in a statement that “while we have agreed to
settle this matter, we do not agree with the government's claims; LinkedIn pays
and has paid its employees fairly and equitably when comparing similar work.”
The settlement agreement says LinkedIn argued that its statistical
models didn't identify pay disparities. The government said its own analysis
found significant pay disparities even after controlling for “legitimate
explanatory factors.”
The agency said the case was sparked by a routine evaluation
by its Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs. Federal laws ban
discriminatory practices at companies that contract with the federal
government.
Last year, Google faced a similar complaint against pay
disparity when California's civil rights regulator was investigating company's
treatment of Black female workers following alleged incidents of harassment and
discrimination, according to two people familiar with the matter and emails
from the agency seen by Reuters.
Attorneys and analysts at the California Department of Fair
Employment and Housing (DFEH) had repeatedly interviewed several Black women
who have worked at the Alphabet-owned company about their experiences there,
according to the documents and the sources.
Questions have centred on alleged harassment and discrimination
in the workplace, according to the emails. The DFEH declined to comment.
Google said it is focused on "building sustainable
equity" for its Black workers and that 2020 was its largest year for
hiring what it calls "Black+" workers, a designation inclusive of
people belonging to multiple races.
"Our goal is to ensure that every employee experiences
Google as an inclusive workplace," it said. "We'll continue to focus
on this important work and thoroughly investigate any concerns, to make sure
our workplace is representative and equitable."
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