Gender Pay Gap: 10,800 Women Sue Google

Four women who used to work at Google have won a class-action law suit against the tech giant to go ahead with a gender pay disparity lawsuit.

The ruling means the women can sue as a class and the suit can now apply to 10,800 women who held previous various positions against the company since 2013.

Three of the four women, Kelly Ellis, Holly Pease and Kelli Wisuri, had filed an original suit back in 2017 which was thrown out by a judge before they resubmitted with an additional plaintiff, Heidi Lamar.

Ellis announced the ruling on her verified Twitter page on Thursday, describing it as “huge”.

The 10,800 affected women represent a large variety of jobs including program managers, salespersons, engineers and at least one preschool teacher.

The women are seeking more than $600 million in damages and allege that Google violated the California Equal Pay Act by paying them less than their male colleagues, as well as promoting them slowly, and less frequently.

According to a previous filing in the lawsuit, female workers at Google earn almost $16,800 less than the “similarly suited man”.

The suit also claims Google’s use of previous salary information was a key factor in its perpetuation of wage inequality and although the tech giant stopped that practice in 2017, it has failed to address its wage gaps.