A judge recently ordered Google to hand over salary data from 2014 to the Labor Department in a government investigation into the company’s wage gap. During a routine audit by the Department, they found “extreme” pay discrimination on the basis of gender, which led into a deeper probe that is happening now, according to The Guardian.
Google must provide the federal government with a 2014 snapshot of the data, along with contact information for thousands of employees for possible interviews, according to a ruling made public on Sunday.
Judge Steve Berlin also denied part of the government’s request for records and partially sided with Google, which had argued the department’s demands were overly broad and could violate employee privacy.
The limited records Google must release could help the DoL build a formal pay discrimination case against the company, which has repeatedly refused to disclose key data in what has become one of the most high-profile court battles to date regarding wage inequality in Silicon Valley. The department argued that additional records would help explain the “extreme” gender pay gap it uncoveredin an initial audit.
Despite the government’s statements, Google insists that they have no gender pay gap. On Sunday, their vice president of people operations, Eileen Naughton, published a blog post in response to the lawsuit, saying the ruling acknowledges the company’s efforts to fight discrimination.
We invest a lot in our efforts to create a fair and inclusive environment for all our employees—across all genders and races. The judge acknowledged this, saying: “I would think that the Department would laud government contractors that spend hundreds of millions of dollars on diversity initiatives, not use those voluntary efforts against these companies."