Women received higher pay as compared to men, according to a new internal audit by Google. The company’s level 4 male engineers received far less compensation in 2017. This prompted Google to adjust their pay in 2018 by providing an extra $9.7 million to around 11,000 employees.
Questions are being raised whether these additional $9.7 million went to the pockets of all male employees. However, Google has not responded to any queries. New York Times reported that most of the compensation has indeed gone to male employees.
According to Google, the level 4 male software engineers at the company received less pay in 2017 due to allocation of fewer discretionary funds to male employees.
Company’s pay policies may not be convince all its critics. Google officials on their part, acknowledged that the study did not answer whether women are hired at low pay grade as compared to men, despite their qualifications. However, this seems to be the beginning of a more open dialogue about equality at workplace in the software industry.
Does Equal Pay Guarantees Equality?
Google is attempting to write a new chapter on men and women, at least in its own book. In the past, Google has questioned whether mere equal pay packages reflect equity in workplaces. The company has talked about different roles, responsibilities, and performance based initiatives which make way for much deeper insights into the red-hot allegations levelled against it.
Google’s response came as a result of several happenings surrounding the company. Many of Google’s employees recently staged a walkout. According to them, the company handled the sexual allegations charges against top executives inappropriately. Additionally, the company also came under fire through a lawsuit alleging pay discrimination at Google.
Google’s lead analyst for Pay Equity and People Analytics, Lauren Barbato concluded Google’s findings on a positive note. She said, Google’s pay equity analysis ensures that pay is fair for employees in the same metrics, assuming their end of the bargain is equal.
