Google Settles California Equal Pay Lawsuit for $28 Million

Santa Clara, CA On March 17, Google announced that it would pay $28 million to settle a class action equal pay lawsuit brought under various sections of the California Labor Code. Ana Cantu v. Google, LLC. alleges that the tech giant systematically paid Hispanic, Latinx, Indigenous, Native American, American Indian, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islanders and/or Alaska Natives less than White and/or Asian/Asian American employees for substantially similar work.

Google Settles California Equal Pay Lawsuit for Million The Complaint tells a tale of widespread and deeply-rooted wage discrimination, barred by California’s Equal Pay Act. The lawsuit also cited a pattern of harassment, retaliation, infliction of emotional distress, failure to pay wages in a timely manner and unfair business practices. In addition, the plaintiffs sought relief under the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA).

Oh yes, and there’s a smoking gun…

High hopes suddenly gone cold

Cantu, who identifies as ethnically Mexican and racially Indigenous, began working for Google in September 2014. When she interviewed, she was asked about her previous salary. At the time, Google set starting salaries based on this information. Subsequent salary increases at the company were generally a percentage built on this base. The Equal Pay Act recognizes that this practice has the effect of perpetuating historical race, ethnicity and gender wage discrimination.

Cantu had consistently positive performance reviews and high hopes. It eventually became clear, however, that despite her achievements and good performance evaluations, she was being passed over. This went on as her White colleagues got promotions and raises. Her department was almost entirely made up of White Anglos.

She asked what she should do to get a promotion or a raise like her colleagues but got no guidance. She was stuck at the job level of L5, while her White (non-Hispanic) peers were promoted to job levels L6 and L7.

At Google, which had a very stratified system of job classification, the difference between L5 and L6 or L7 is significant. L6s and up receive significant additional compensation, including bonuses and stock options.

Cantu complained to her Human Resources Department, describing instances of marginalization and discrimination. (Her supervisor continued to use the term “pow-wow” even after Cantu explained why the term was offensive to Indigenous people.)

She asked to be transferred to a different supervisor, to no avail. Instead, HR eventually conceded that her concerns went into a “black hole.”

She resigned in 2021.

Lordy, there’s a spreadsheet!

In 2023, Business Insider published a leaked internal spreadsheet that does the numbers. It documents that Google employees who identify as Hispanic, Latinx, Black/African descent, Indigenous, Native American, American Indian, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, and/or Alaska Native consistently earn less than White (non-Hispanic) Google workers who perform substantially the same work under similar working conditions.

The implication of widespread wage discrimination based on ethnicity and race is hard to dodge.

Equal Pay Act

As amended to date, the Equal Pay Act prohibits an employer from paying any of its employees wage rates that are less than what it pays employees of the opposite sex, or of another race, or of another ethnicity for substantially similar work, when viewed as a composite of skill, effort, and responsibility, and performed under similar working conditions.

At its inception, the law focused on gender discrimination, but it now also:

prohibits race- or ethnicity-based wage differences;
eliminates the requirement that the jobs that are compared must be located at the same establishment;
replaces a comparison of “equal” work with a comparison of “substantially similar” work;
makes it more difficult for employers to justify unequal pay based on sex, race, or ethnicity;
adds new express anti-retaliation protections for workers who assist employees with bringing claims under the Act;
provides that an employer cannot prohibit workers from disclosing their wages, discussing the wages of others, or inquiring about others’ wages; and
prohibits employers from relying on an employee’s prior salary to justify the sex-, race-, or ethnicity- based pay difference.