Google To Pay $1.15 Million To Ulku Rowe For Gender Discrimination

Google is said to have treated a manager unfairly and kept her salary too low. A court has decided that the search engine company must pay millions in compensation. Google rejects the accusation of gender discrimination.

Cloud boss Ulku Rowe has accused the company of paying her lower wages than her male colleagues with less experience. She started working at Google in 2017 and already had 23 years of experience. In addition to the lower pay, Google also allegedly denied her a promotion after she complained about unfair treatment.

A court case in New York ruled that Google did indeed discriminate against the manager based on her gender. As Bloomberg Law writes, the company now has to pay a sum of $1.15 million to Ulku Rowe. The amount consists of $150,000 for the suffering caused and one million dollars as a penalty.

Google denies allegations

Google had denied the allegations in court and argued that she had the same opportunities as her male colleagues. The same performance criteria are said to have been used to decide on the level of salary and possible promotion. Ulku Rowe explained that she was placed on a pay scale below her colleagues with less experience.

While she earned about $750,000 per year in level 8, employees in level 8 were paid more than $1 million annually. Google released a statement regarding the allegations, emphasizing that the jury was not convinced that the company violated New York’s equal pay law. To do this, Ulku Rowe would have had to prove that she was paid less than two of her male colleagues.