Google Study to Address Wage Gap Finds Company Is Underpaying Men

A study conducted to address the alleged wage gap at Google found that in most cases, it was men who were being compensated less than their female peers.

Google was sued in 2017 by three former female employees, who claimed the Internet giant systematically discriminated against women by paying them less than men. A New York Times analysis found at the time that the company paid women less than men on average, but Google countered that the analysis was flawed because it did not take into account factors like tenure, location, or job performance.

Google found in the latest version of its annual pay analysis that "more men than women were receiving less money for doing similar work," the Times reported. As a result of the "surprising conclusion," the Times reports a disproportionate amount of the $9.7 million in additional compensation allotted to employees to address pay disparity will end up going to men.

Lauren Barbato, Google's lead analyst for pay equity, told the paper it was a "surprising trend that we didn’t expect." Ironically, the anti-male pay gap was likely the result of intentional efforts by Google to target female employees for increased discretionary funds the year prior.

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