Google announced Monday that it has been underpaying some employees. But unlike previous accusations that the tech giant underpays women, this latest revelation offers the opposite. In a blog post, Lauren Barbato, Google’s lead analyst for pay equity and people analytics, explained that Google had been underpaying one group of male software developers with a specific job code, a group which had been given “less discretionary funds than women.”
In 2018, the company included 91% of its employees in its analysis, and Google says it paid $9.7 million in adjustments to a total of 10,677 Googlers. Google did not specify how many of those employees were men, or what percentage of that pay adjustment total male software developers received. By comparison, in 2017, by its own measure, also reported in a blog post, Google spent about $270,000 in adjustments for 228 Googlers. The 2018 total adjustment amount is so much higher than the previous year due in part to nearly half of the total dollar amount going toward discrepancies in offers to new hires.
The company also noted that regarding this latest 2018, the wage disparity and adjustment data was shared with employees in January but is now being shared more widely.
Ongoing investigations and lawsuits filed against (GOOG) Google alleged wage gaps and pay discrimination across various sectors and services that are part of the larger conglomerate, including pre-school teachers at Google’s childcare center. In November, more than 20,000 employees at Google offices worldwide staged a walkout to protest sexual harassment, lack of transparency, and a non-inclusive work culture. Following the protest, Google changed its policies on forced arbitration for sexual harassment complaints. As of February, the company also ended forced arbitration in discrimination cases.