Did Google give preferential treatment to white, Asian employees?

Google has agreed to settle a racial discrimination lawsuit.

The tech giant, a subsidiary of Alphabet, has agreed to fork over $28 million to end a suit accusing it of racial bias.

Google, while confirming the development, insisted it had not discriminated against anyone.

“We reached a resolution, but continue to disagree with the allegations that we treated anyone differently, and remain committed to paying, hiring, and levelling all employees fairly,” the company said.

But what happened? What do we know about the lawsuit?

Let’s take a closer look

What do we know?

As per BBC, the suit was filed in 2021 by ex-Google employee Ana Cantu.

It claimed that Google paid white and Asian employees more than other ethnicities.

It also alleged that white and Asian employees received better career opportunities.

Cantu, who is Mexican and racially indigenous, in her plea alleged that employees who are ethnically Hispanic, Latino, Native American, among others, were given a lower starting salary than white and Asian workers.

Cantu also claimed that employees from these ethnicities started their career at Google at lower job levels.

As per The Guardian, Cantu filed the lawsuit on behalf of those with minority backgrounds at the tech giant.

Cantu claimed she remained at her job level for seven years – despite putting in top notch work at Google’s people operations and cloud departments.

Editor’s Picks

1

Remove gender pronouns, says Deloitte US. How big companies are abandoning DEI initiatives 2

DeepSeek vs ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot: Which is the most effective AI chatbot?

This, as white and Asian peers received more pay and promotions.

She claimed that white and Asian employees were also hired at senior levels compared to other workers – even for doing the same job.

She also accused the company of denying those who brought up the alleged issue as raises and promotions.

Cantu argued Google’s actions violated the California Equal Pay Act.

As per The Tribune, the case was built on a leaked internal document which allegedly showed people from different ethnicities were not being paid equally.

The class action lawsuit comprised 6,632 Google employees in California between February 15, 2018, and December 31, 2024.

Cathy Coble, one of the lawyers for the defendants called the employees brave.

“Suspected pay inequity is too easily concealed without this kind of collective action from employees.”

“We hope this settlement will contribute to greater transparency and fairness within the tech industry,” she said, as per The Tribune.

The agreement with Google received preliminary approval last week from Judge Charles Adams of the Santa Clara County Superior Court in California.

He called the settlement fair, reasonable and “a good result for the class.”

Adams said the settlement came after Cantu’s lawyers agreed this month to exclude Black employees from the proposed class, which Google had sought.

Net settlement proceeds total $20.4 million, after deducting $7 million for legal fees, penalties tied to Cantu’s claim under California’s Private Attorneys General Act, and other costs.

Adams scheduled a September 11 hearing to consider final settlement approval.

Other racial discrimination lawsuits against Google

This is far from the only lawsuit against Google alleging racial bias.

As per NDTV, in March 2024, a black and deaf employee – the first such worker Google has hired – sued the giant.

Jalon Hall has accused Google of racial and disability discrimination.

She claimed Google was, primary to its public image, a hostile work environment.

She also alleged to have experienced racial bias.

“I felt humiliated, realising that I would not grow in my career,”  Hall told Wired.

She also claimed that a manager called her an “aggressive black deaf woman.”

Hall claimed she did not receive promotions due to “inaccurate evaluations.”

“Google is using me to make them look inclusive for the Deaf community and the overall disability community,” Hall told the outlet. “In reality, they need to do better.”

In 2022, a similar lawsuit accused Google of discriminating against Black employees.

The plaintiff, April Curley, claimed that Black employees are hired at lower-level jobs, are paid less and denied career advancement.

The suit claimed that Google maintains a “racially biased corporate culture” that favours white men.

Curley, who claimed she was hired by Google in 2014 to design a programme that would led the tech giant reach out to historically Black colleges, too said she was denied advancement.

She claimed her hiring was a “marketing ploy” and that her managers began belittling her work and calling her an ‘angry Black woman.’

It noted that Black people comprise just 4.4 per cent of employees and around three per cent of leadership and its technology workforce.

Curley claimed she was fired in 2020 after bringing the issues to Google’s attention.

“While Google claims that they were looking to increase diversity, they were actually undervaluing, underpaying and mistreating their Black employees,” Curley’s lawyer Ben Crump said in a statement.

Google is one of several companies that are rolling back diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

This comes in the backdrop of attacks from US President Donald Trump and his backers.

However, critics say that these policies are essential to redressing what has been an historically unfair playing field for minorities.

With inputs from agencies