Google agrees to pay $2.6M to end discrimination probe

Google is set to pay nearly $2.6 million to settle allegations that it underpaid thousands of female workers and discriminated against female and Asian job applicants.

As part of the “early resolution” conciliation agreement released by the Department of Labor on Monday, the Silicon Valley giant will review its hiring and pay practices.

The agency had found “preliminary indicators” of bias at five Google locations in Washington state and California during a routine audit of affirmative action obligations.

The Department of Labor will not audit 39 Google locations for the next five years, according to the agreement dated Jan. 15.

The back pay will be available for more than 2,500 women who worked at the company’s offices in Kirkland, Wash., and Seattle in 2017 and Mountain View, Calif., in 2014 and 2015.

Another 3,000 female and Asian applicants for positions at Google’s offices in San Francisco, Sunnyvale, Calif., and Kirkland between 2016 and 2017 will also be eligible for a payment.

A spokesperson for Google said the company is “pleased to have resolved this matter.”

“[We] remain committed to diversity and equity and to supporting our people in a way that allows them to do their best work,” they added.

The search giant continues to deny the allegations in the settlement.

–Updated on Feb. 2 at 12:09 p.m.