“Each year, we suggest an amount for every employee’s new compensation (consisting of base salary, bonus and equity) based on role, job level, job location as well as current and recent performance ratings. This suggested amount is “blind” to gender,” explained Naughton.
“The analysts who calculate the suggested amounts do not have access to employees’ gender data. An employee’s manager has limited discretion to adjust the suggested amount, providing they cite a legitimate adjustment rationale.”
Naughton said that the model then measures individual salary calculations against those received by their peers in order to ensure there is “no statistically significant differences between men’s and women’s compensation.”
The Department of Labor initiated an offensive against Google in September 2016, later filing a lawsuit in January calling for access to the company’s compensation data.
Naughton said this had been done “without any supporting data or methodology.”
“Our analysis gives us confidence that there is no gender pay gap at Google. In fact, we recently expanded the analysis to cover race in the US,” she added.
Naughton said Google’s methodology is available to other businesses who want to test their own compensation practices for equal pay.
