LinkedIn has agreed to pay $1.8 million in back wages to hundreds of female employees. It is to resolve a pay discrimination case brought by US labor investigators. The United States Department of Labor stated on Tuesday that it has reached an agreement with LinkedIn to resolve claims of “systemic, gender-based pay discrimination” in which women were paid less than men in comparable job roles.
The settlement affects nearly 700 women who worked in engineering, product, and marketing roles from 2015 to 2017 at the company’s offices in San Francisco and Sunnyvale. It includes the years leading up to and following Microsoft’s $26.2 billion acquisition of LinkedIn in 2016.
LinkedIn said in a statement that “while we have agreed to settle this matter, we do not agree with the government’s claims; LinkedIn pays and has paid its employees fairly and equitably when comparing similar work.”
As per the settlement agreement, LinkedIn has denied pay discrimination and claimed that its statistical tools failed to detect wage inequalities. Even after controlling for reasonable explanatory factors, the government’s investigation discovered considerable pay discrepancies, according to the agency.
The investigation began due to a routine inspection by the agency’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, as per the agency. Companies that contract with the federal government are prohibited from engaging in discriminatory practices under federal law.
Google faced a similar complaint against pay disparity last year. California’s civil rights regulator was investigating the company’s treatment of Black female workers following alleged incidents of harassment and discrimination.
