Google to pay $50 million to settle lawsuit claiming it paid Black workers less

Google will pay $50 million to settle a class-action lawsuit accusing it of paying Black workers less.

April Curley, a Black woman who worked at the Mountain View, California, digital-advertising giant from 2014 to 2022, claimed in her 2022 lawsuit that she was hired to recruit more Black workers but fired for pushing back against the firm’s “racially biased corporate culture.”

The lawsuit filed in San Jose U.S. District Court alleged that Curley and other Black workers at Google were paid lower wages, denied advancement opportunities, and subjected to a hostile work environment on the basis of race.

Lawyers for Curley and other plaintiffs revealed the settlement in a court filing Thursday, saying it arose out of “years of litigation and extensive arm’s length negotiations.”

About 4,000 Black current and former Google employees will share in the settlement money, the filing said.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Under the agreement, Google will “continue to analyze pay to identify unexplained differences based on race,” and will “maintain well-publicized methods for employees to report concerns related to the terms and conditions of their employment,” the filing said.

Google had in court filings opposed class-action status for the lawsuit, saying “thousands of mini-trials would be required to determine whether race played any role in any decision as to each putative class member.”

In March, Google agreed to pay more than 6,000 current and former Latino, Indigenous and Pacific Islander employees about $3,000 each, to settle a different class-action lawsuit claiming it paid white and Asian workers more.

In 2022, Google agreed to pay $118 million to thousands of women to settle a lawsuit accusing it of putting female workers into lower salary levels than men, giving women lower-paying jobs, promoting women more slowly and less often, and generally paying female employees less than men for similar work.

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