Is Google underpaying women? 

Shortly after Equal Pay Day, news broke that the Labor Department was suing Google for gender-based pay inequity. Or, as regional solicitor Janet Herold put it: "the Department has received compelling evidence of very significant discrimination against women in the most common positions at Google headquarters.”

As a federal contractor, Google is required to provide salary information to the Department to make sure it is complying with federal employment laws against pay inequity. However, Google has repeatedly refused to release this information. They claim that their own internal review is sufficient, and insist they have found "no gender pay gap." They even argue that the Department's request is a violation of the company's Fourth Amendment right to protection from unreasonable searches.

“For some reason or another," says a Labor Department lawyer, "Google wants to hide the pay-related information.”

Companies shouldn't be above the law. Tell Google to stop stalling and release the salary information now.

Unequal pay has been a problem in Silicon Valley for a long time. In 2014, Microsoft CEO Nadella ignited a storm of controversy when he declared that women should not bother to ask for raises. It took a company-wide review for Salesforce to acknowledge that many of its female employees were being paid less than their male counterparts. In fact, a 2015 survey by Joint Venture Silicon Valley reported that men in the Valley reported making as much as 61% more than their female counterparts.

However, the Labor Department seems to believe that even by the standards of the Valley, Google is guilty of creating particularly egregious pay inquity. As Herold notes, “The government’s analysis at this point indicates that discrimination against women in Google is quite extreme, even in this industry.”

If this is true, then Google's public image as a friendly, progressive company is a sham. There's only one way to find out the facts - Google has to release the salary data.

We need to hold Google accountable. We've done it before: when Google was avoiding $2 billion in taxes by using clever loopholes, 136,000 SumOfUs members stood up to demand the corporate giant pay its fair share. Now it's time to deploy people power once again. Let Google and all of Silicon Valley know: equal pay for equal work is not just a slogan, it's the right thing to do.

Tell Google: Enough secrets, it's time for transparency. Release your salary information and end the gender pay gap now.

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