Google coughs up $50 million to settle Black bias lawsuit - DINT 152
April Curley's lawsuit, brought in 2022, finally bears fruit. She, along with 4,000 other Black Googlers, will receive $50 million from Google to settle discrimination claims.
Google to pay $50M to Black employees affected by discrimination
Black employees faced false accusations, lower pay, no promotions, and fewer opportunities to advance
Former Google recruiter April Curley launched the class action lawsuit in 2022 along with other Black women affected by Google’s unfair practices
Google takes no responsibility but agrees to pay $50 million to 4,000 current and former employees
Google also agree to non-monetary terms designed to increase fairness in their employment practices
The company will be monitored and evaluated for compliance three years after courts finalize the settlement agreement, which could take place in July 2025.
This week Google agreed to settle a racial discrimination lawsuit against its Black (and Black+) employees for $50 million. April Curley, a former Google recruiter specializing in filling the tech company’s hiring pipeline with Black and brown talent, first brought the legal action in March 2022.
Curley states she was fired from Google in September 2020 for a litany of reasons ranging from her being perceived as intimidating due to her Baltimore accent to calling out discrimination.
Google, for its part, refuses to disclose the reason for Curley’s firing, telling media outlet The Daily Dot, “...it’s not appropriate for us to provide a commentary about her claims.”
Curley’s claims met with validation on May 9 when Google agreed to the $50 million settlement with Curley and a class of 4,000 other present or former Googlers denied opportunities because they are Black (or in Google parlance “Black+”).
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This Week in Tech, Race, and Gender - DINT 146
Last week’s news of Google requiring the exclusion Black employees from a class action suit before they agreed to a $28 million settlement for racial discrimination has a bit more context now.
Quick timeline of events
September 2020
Google fires Curley, HBCU recruiter who held the company accountable for not living up to stated claims of equality and fairness
April Christina Curley spoke out against racism at Google. Her story points to the struggles Black women face in tech (Technical.ly)
December 2020
Google fires Timnit Gebru, AI ethicist who accurately predicted challenges the world currently faces with AI and human engagement.
We read the paper that forced Timnit Gebru out of Google. Here’s what it says. The company’s star ethics researcher highlighted the risks of large language models, which are key to Google’s business (MIT Technology Review)
December 2021
California Civil Rights Department opens investigation into Google’s treatment of Black women in the wake of several incidents of harassment
Exclusive: California probes Google's treatment of Black female workers (Reuters)
February 2022
Google reports high rates of Black women leaving the company in 2021
More Black women leaving Google’s workforce (Moonshot)
Note: Google has taken down the link to its 2021 diversity report. We found it for you here.
March 2022
Curley files class action lawsuit against Google for discriminatory payment and promotion practices
Lawsuit accuses Google of Systemic Bias Against Black Employees (Law Commentary)
March 2025
Google settles $28 million lawsuit for favoring white and Asian workers over Latinx, Indigenous, and Pacific Islander employees
Google to pay $28 million to settle claims it favored white and Asian employees (Reuters)
May 2025
Google agrees to pay 4,000 Black Google workers $50 million to settle discrimination lawsuit
Google to pay $50M to settle Black racial bias suit (KTVU Fox 2)
Black employees weren’t the only ones bearing the brunt of Google’s racism. In March, the company settled a lawsuit for $28 million with a group of 6,600 Latinx, Indigenous, and Pacific Islander employees denied equitable pay and promotions to their white and Asian counterparts. The math gets complicated and is based on job type, tenure, and leveling within Google.
For Black employees, the math gets even trickier. There’s no formula involved, which can lead to subjective estimates of proper compensation. We’ll know more details in the future.
But we do know Google also agreed to non-monetary settlement actions which include:
Not considering previous salary during salary negotiations and offers
Analyzing pay to identify and eliminate disparities based on race before finalizing pay raises
Allowing employees to voice concerns about pay differences, investigating the claims and making corrections when warranted.
They’re also suspending mandatory arbitration until mid 2026 which is good for employees because any future lawsuits will be more public and could have a favorable outcome for the person bringing the claim. This isn’t usually the case in arbitration cases since the company, in this case Google, is usually the entity paying for the legal proceedings.
Google will be under supervision of a settlement administrator and submit to a review of their compliance with the non-monetary settlement agreement three years after the agreement is finalized.
Google refuses to admit it did anything wrong.
For the $28 million settlement in March, Google spokesperson Courtenay Mencini said:
"We continue to disagree with the allegations that we treated anyone differently, and remain committed to paying, hiring and leveling all employees fairly."
After this week’s $50 million settlement, Mencini shared similar comments on behalf of Google:
“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.”
That’s par for the course in settlement proceedings. As a result of this recent spate of settlements, will life get better for Black and brown employees at Google?
“Google chose to ignore and ultimately attack Black employees brave enough to speak up about Google's embedded racism that actively harmed Black employees on a daily basis,” Curley said in a public statement announcing the lawsuit in 2022.
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