Google has settled a 2022 lawsuit for $50 million brought by Black employees alleging systemic racial disparities in hiring, pay and career advancement.
The legal action accused the tech giant of a “pattern and practice” of unfair treatment.
Former Google employee April Curley initiated the suit, claiming Black workers were steered into lower-level and lower-paid jobs and faced a hostile work environment for speaking out. Other former employees joined, and the complaint later received class action status.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, representing the plaintiffs, stated: “This case is about accountability, plain and simple. For far too long, Black employees in the tech industry have faced barriers that limit opportunity. This settlement is a significant step toward holding one of the world’s most powerful companies accountable and making clear that discriminatory practices cannot and will not be tolerated.”
Google did not immediately respond to a message for comment on Friday.
The lawsuit, echoed years of complaints from Black employees at the company. That includes prominent artificial intelligence scholar Timnit Gebru, who said she was pushed out in 2020 after a dispute over a research paper examining the societal dangers of an emerging branch of artificial intelligence.
The 2022 lawsuit claimed that Mountain View, California-based Google viewed Black job candidates “through harmful racial stereotypes” and claimed that hiring managers deemed Black candidates “not ‘Googly’ enough, a plain dog whistle for race discrimination.”
In addition, according to the suit, interviewers “hazed” and undermined Black candidates and hired Black candidates into lower-paying and lower-level roles with less advancement potential based on their race and racial stereotypes.
The settlement, which does not constitute admission of liability by Google, also includes a commitment to pay equity analyses, pay transparency measures, and limits on mandatory arbitration for employment-related disputes through at least August 2026, according to Crump.
