Google hit by new version of pay equity lawsuit

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Accusations that Google pays women less than men have resurfaced in a new version of a lawsuit, which now makes specific claims that affected female employees include engineers, program managers, salespeople and at least one preschool teacher.

A judge dismissed an earlier version of the suit — which seeks class-action status — but invited the plaintiffs to submit a new version describing the purported affected class more specifically.

Plaintiffs Kelly Ellis, Holly Pease, Kelli Wisuri and Heidi Lamar claim that Google discriminates against women and breaks California law by slotting women into lower salary levels than men, giving women lower-paying jobs, promoting women more slowly and generally paying female employees less than men for similar work.

Lamar, a former preschool teacher at Google, was not named in the original complaint but was added to the amended version, which was filed Wednesday in California Superior Court in San Francisco.

Google said it disagreed with the “central allegations” of the amended legal action.

“Job levels and promotions are determined through rigorous hiring and promotion committees, and must pass multiple levels of review, including checks to make sure there is no bias in these decisions,” Google spokeswoman Gina Scigliano said.

The lawsuit claims that Google’s use of previous salary information is a key factor behind unequal pay for women.

First filed in September, the suit was dismissed in December by a California state court judge who said it cast too wide a net by defining the affected class as all women employed at Google during the previous four years.