Google Accused of Discriminating Against Female Employees by Underpaying Them

The US Department of Labour (DoL) has accused Google of discriminating against its female employees by paying them less than their male counterparts.

According to a report in the Guardian on Saturday, The DoL, which is investigating the case, claims to have evidence of "systemic compensation disparities".

The allegations surface days after Google announced on Equal Pay Day that it had "closed the gender pay gap globally".

"Let's make every day #EqualPayDay. All employers can take steps to eliminate the gender and race pay gaps, today," @Google tweeted earlier this week.

The government has collected information that points towards the violation of federal employment laws by Google, the DoL said.

"We found systemic compensation disparities against women pretty much across the entire workforce," the report quoted Janette Wipper, a DoL regional director, testifying in a San Francisco court, as saying.

The investigation in the case is not complete, but the DoL has said the government's analysis at this point indicated discrimination against women in Google is quite extreme.

"Every year, we do a comprehensive and robust analysis of pay across genders and we have found no gender pay gap. Other than making an unfounded statement which we heard for the first time in court, the DoL hasn't provided any data, or shared its methodology," a Google spokesperson was quoted as saying.