Google, sued for 'wage gender discrimination,' agrees to pay 150 billion won in compensation to female employees

15,500 Female Employees Working at Headquarters Participate as Contributors
Google States "We Will Ensure Fair Salary, Hiring, and Evaluation for All Employees"

Google has agreed to pay over $100 million in damages following a class-action lawsuit over wage discrimination. The photo shows the Google logo on the glass window of the Google Startup Campus in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunju Park] Google has agreed to pay more than $100 million in damages to female employees who filed a class-action lawsuit over wage discrimination.

According to foreign media including Bloomberg on the 12th (local time), Google has agreed to pay a total of $118 million (approximately 152.2463 billion KRW) in damages to about 15,500 female employees across 236 positions in the wage discrimination class-action lawsuit.

This settlement was reached five years after the lawsuit was filed in September 2017 by three female Google headquarters employees?Kelly Ellis, Holly Pease, and Kelly Wisely?and later expanded into a class-action suit. The original lawsuit filed by the three was expanded into a class-action suit involving 15,500 female employees working at Google headquarters after the San Francisco Superior Court approved the class-action status in June last year.

The plaintiffs claimed that Google paid them approximately $17,000 (about 21 million KRW) less than male employees performing the same duties with equal qualifications, and also denied them promotion or job transfer opportunities.

Holly Pease, one of the plaintiffs, stated in a released statement, "As a woman working in the technology industry, I believe this settlement will ensure greater equity for women."

Google said, "We are committed to fair and equal pay, hiring, and evaluations for all employees," adding, "If any wage gaps between male and female employees are found, we will make upward adjustments."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.