Google agreed to pay $50 million to settle a lawsuit alleging the search engine giant was racially biased against Black employees.
The settlement, which was reached after mediation and certified by a U.S. District Court judge in Oakland on Friday, covers some 4,000 Google employees in California and New York.
The original lawsuit came after a state agency, now known as the California Civil Rights Department, in 2021 began investigating Google’s treatment of Black female workers.
In 2022, former Google worker April Curley filed a lawsuit in federal court in San Jose alleging that she and other Black workers experienced systemic discrimination.
Curley, who worked at Google for six years, had been hired to conduct outreach and design recruiting programs with historically Black colleges.
However, her experience at the company quickly soured, she said, alleging that she was stereotyped as an “angry” Black woman, that she and other Black women had not been allowed to present during important meetings and that she was wrongfully terminated in 2020 after challenging internal practices.
Black workers were hired to lower-level jobs, paid lower wages, subjected to hostile comments and denied promotions, Curley and other Black workers who joined the proposed class-action alleged in their lawsuit.
The complaint said managers disparaged Black employees for not being “Googley” enough, comments the plaintiffs said served as racist dog whistles.
Throughout the litigation, the Mountain View-based company has maintained that it did not violate any laws.
“We’ve reached an agreement that involves no admission of wrongdoing. We strongly disagree with the allegations that we treated anyone improperly and we remain committed to paying, hiring, and leveling all employees consistently,” Google spokesperson Courtenay Mencini said in a statement Tuesday.
In addition to the monetary payout, Google has agreed in the settlement to analyze pay and correct differences based on race for the next three years. The company has also committed to maintaining transparent salary ranges and methods for employees to report concerns about pay or other practices.
And through August 2026, the company will not require employees to enter into mandatory arbitration for employment-related disputes, according to the settlement agreement filed last week in federal court.
