GOOGLE goes to trial in biggest challenge to tech power in decades…
So much for equality, Google! Leaked spreadsheet reveals average salaries at the search giant – where black staff make $20,000 less than whites and gender pay gap is still very much alive
Googlers of African descent made $20,000 less than White or Asian coworkers. The median total compensation for the average Googler in 2022 was $279,802. And Google’s ‘min. base’ salary was lowest in the most expensive place to live in the US: New York
BURNING MAN IS ATTENDED BY MOST GOOGLE STAFF AND BURNING MAN IS JUST AS RACIST
Leaked Google spreadsheet reveals average salaries at the search giant – where black staff make $20,000 less than whites and the gender pay gap is still very much alive
- Googlers of African descent made $20,000 less than White or Asian coworkers
- The median total compensation for the average Googler in 2022 was $279,802
- Google’s ‘min. base’ salary was lowest in the most expensive US city: New York
- READ MORE: Google is quietly killing a popular app – here’s how it will affect you
Black staff at Google make $20,000 less on average compared to their white coworkers and women are paid less than men in almost every department, according to leaked data reviewed by news site Insider.
The spreadsheets lay bare the salaries and bonuses of over 12,000 Google employees in white-collar roles across the search engine giant’s US offices nationwide.
Beyond numerous eye-popping six-figure and seven-figure sums, the tech company does not appear to be upholding the ‘equity’ portion of its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policy — with clear trends in unequal pay by race and gender.
The revelations come despite recurring news in recent years of Google managers attempting to ban ‘offensive’ terms like ‘man hours’ and ‘chubby,’ or company plans to flag politically incorrect terms for users within search bars and Google docs.
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For Google’s offices in the Big Apple, the average ‘minimum base salary’ came to a reported $48,000, barely enough to make rent within the city in 2023. And, at Google’s offices around the San Francisco Bay Area, the average ‘minimum base salary’ was just $39,962
The leaked salary data shows that Google employees of Black or African descent made over $20,000 less, on average, than their White or Asian counterparts. Above, Google CEO Sundar Pichai at a press event in Berlin for Germany’s national women’s team
Google’s average ‘minimum base salary’ is lowest in two of the most expensive areas to live in the US: New York City and Silicon Valley.
For Google’s offices in the Big Apple, the average ‘minimum base salary’ came to a reported $48,000, barely enough to make rent within the city in 2023.
And, at Google’s many offices around California’s San Francisco Bay Area, which has the third highest cost of living of any city in America, the average ‘minimum base salary’ was just $39,962.
The statistic was culled from Google’s eight office locations across Silicon Valley and its surrounding suburbs, including: Mountain View, Sunnyvale, San Francisco, San Bruno, South San Francisco, Redwood City, Palo Alto, San Jose
The data was compiled and shared internally by Googlers themselves, US employees who voluntarily submitted their 2022 salary, equity and bonus data.
Their spreadsheet was leaked to Insider, where data journalists crunched the numbers.
The pay data includes employees from many roles within the tech giant, including software engineers, business analysts, and salespeople.
It also included data tagged by race, showing that Google employees of Black or African descent made over $20,000 less, on average, than their White or Asian counterparts.
Indigenous and Hispanic/Latino employees also suffered from a pay disparity.
The issue may come down to company culture, as in the US as of 2023 the majority of Google’s American staff is either Asian (44.8 percent) or White (46.2 percent) based on the company’s own reporting.
| Race | Base salary | Equity | Bonus percentage | Bonus |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asian | $170,000 | $88,000 | 43% | $31,000 |
| Black/African descent | $147,000 | $50,500 | 40% | $25,000 |
| Hispanic/Latino/Latinx | $152,000 | $70,000 | 43% | $28,000 |
| Indigenous | $158,500 | $92,000 | N/A | $27,750 |
| Middle Eastern/North African | $171,000 | $90,938 | 42% | $29,700 |
| White/European descent(including mixed race) | $170,750 | $92,000 | 43% | $31,000 |
| White/European descent only | $171,000 | $93,000 | 43% | $31,140 |
| Two or more races | $159,000 | $78,535 | 41% | $29,478 |
The leaked spreadsheet also included data on the how employee compensation was divided by gender, with the oft-stated disparity between male and female employees proving true to stereotypes — except in sales.
Female employees in ‘enterprise direct sales’ and female sales strategists both appear to be making more than their male coworkers, with the direct sales team earning tens of thousands of dollars more in base salary alone.
Company-wide and among software engineers, nonbinary employees appeared to be earning less in base salary than either men or woman on staff.
| Gender | Base salary | Equity | Bonuspercentage | Bonus |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Female | $165,000 | $77,000 | 40% | $29,500 |
| Male | $172,500 | $95,000 | 43% | $31,500 |
| Nonbinary(neither male nor female) | $154,070 | $74,000 | 45% | $27,750 |
| Female software engineer | $168,000 | $90,000 | N/A | $30,500 |
| Male software engineer | $175,000 | $103,000 | N/A | $32,000 |
| Nonbinary (neither male nor female) software engineer | $153,570 | $75,000 | N/A | $27,500 |
| Female engineering manager | $245,000 | $199,500 | N/A | $61,000 |
| Male engineering manager | $246,000 | $210,000 | N/A | $59,000 |
| Female enterprise direct sales | $145,000 | $41,250 | 150% | N/A |
| Male enterprise direct sales | $127,500 | $40,450 | 150% | N/A |
| Female legal corp. counsel | $267,000 | $136,875 | N/A | $59,500 |
| Male legal corp. counsel | $272,500 | $163,000 | N/A | $75,000 |
| Female sales strategy | $186,000 | $76,000 | N/A | $34,000 |
| Male sales strategy | $183,500 | $71,000 | N/A | $32,000 |
Company-wide and among software engineers, nonbinary employees (neither male nor female) appeared to be earning less in base salary than either men or woman on staff
When reached for comment on the leaked spreadsheet, Google spokesperson Tamani Jayasinghe replied, ‘We compensate Googlers based on what they do, not who they are.’
‘We run a rigorous pay equity analysis every year to make sure salaries, bonuses and equity awards are fair,’ Jayasinghe added. ‘This spreadsheet has old, self-reported data that has not been verified and is not an accurate representation of compensation across our workforce.’
While the accuracy of the leaked spreadsheet and the overall fair treatment of all these sub-groups among Google’s employees might be debatable, one thing that is certain is that Google employees are some of the highest paid in tech.
Including bonuses, and stock option equity stakes in the company, the median total compensation for the average Googler in 2022 was $279,802.
As noted in past reporting on the leaked dataset, the spreadsheet did not comprise a complete roster of Google talent, because it only goes up to level seven out of 11, meaning some earn far more than reported here.
But the highest-paid person in the data set worked in human resources, managing all the rest.
In 2022, Google’s chief people officer, Fiona Cicconi, was reportedly paid a base salary of $1 million, according to Insider, which reports that other C-suite executives at the company enjoyed similar pay bump at the start of that year.
Dailymail.com has reached out to Google’s press team for comment and will update this story with the company’s reply.
Share or comment on this article: Leaked Google spreadsheet reveals average salaries at the search giant – where black staff make $20,000 less than whites and the gender pay gap is still very much alive
US claims Google pays more than $10 billion a year to maintain its search dominance
Google heads to court today to face Justice Department and group of states that accuse company of antitrust violations
Set to take place over the next 10 weeks, the proceedings will begin with both sides’ opening argument in at 9:30am – with the Justice Department being the other principle.
This photo, in New York, Monday, Sept. 11, 2023, shows various Google logos when searched on Google. The U.S. government is taking aim, Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2023 in federal court, at what has been an indomitable empire: Google’s ubiquitous search engine that has become the internet’s main gateway. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Google has exploited its dominance of the internet search market to lock out competitors and smother innovation, the Department of Justice charged Tuesday at the opening of the biggest U.S. antitrust trial in a quarter century.
“This case is about the future of the internet and whether Google’s search engine will ever face meaningful competition,” said Kenneth Dintzer, the Justice Department’s lead litigator.
Over the next 10 weeks, federal lawyers and state attorneys general will try to prove Google rigged the market in its favor by locking its search engine in as the default choice in a plethora of places and devices. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta likely won’t issue a ruling until early next year. If he decides Google broke the law, another trial will decide what steps should be taken to rein in the Mountain View, California-based company.
Top executives at Google and its corporate parent Alphabet Inc., as well as those from other powerful technology companies are expected to testify. Among them is likely to be Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, who succeeded Google co-founder Larry Page four years ago. Court documents also suggest that Eddy Cue, a high ranking Apple executive, might be called to the stand.
The Justice Department filed its antitrust lawsuit against Google nearly three years ago during the Trump administration, charging that the company has used its internet search dominance to gain an unfair advantage against competitors. Government lawyers allege that Google protects its franchise through a form of payola, shelling out billions of dollars annually to be the default search engine on the iPhone and on web browsers such as Apple’s Safari and Mozilla’s Firefox.
“Google pays more than $10 billion per year for these privileged positions,’’ Dintzer said.
“Google’s contracts ensure that rivals cannot match the search quality ad monetization, especially on phones,” Dintzer said. “Through this feedback loop, this wheel has been turning for more than 12 years. It always turns to Google’s advantage.”
Dintzer said the more searches Google processes, the more data it collects – data that can be used to improve future searches and give it an even bigger advantage over its rivals. “User data is the oxygen for a search engine,’’ he said. Because of its market dominance, “Google search and ad products are better than its rivals can hope to be.’’ That is why, he said, Google pays so much for its search engine to be the default option on products from Apple and other companies.
Dintzer said the Google “began weaponizing defaults” more than 15 years ago and cited an internal Google document calling its arrangements an “Achilles Heel” for rival search engines offered by Yahoo and MSN.
He also charged that Google strong-armed Apple into giving its search engine a default position on their devices as a condition for getting revenue sharing payments. “This is not a negotiation,” Dintzer said. “This is Google saying: Take it or leave it.” Litigators argue the company’s anticompetitive tactics prevented Apple from developing a search engine of its own.
And Dintzer said that Google deleted documents to keep them out of court proceedings and sought to hide others under attorney-client privilege. “They destroyed documents for years,’’ Dintzer said. “They turned history off, your honor, so they could rewrite it in this court.’’
Google counters that it faces a wide range of competition despite commanding about 90% of the internet search market. Its rivals, Google argues, range from search engines such as Microsoft’s Bing to websites like Amazon and Yelp, where consumers can post questions about what to buy or where to go.
From Google’s perspective, perpetual improvements to its search engine explain why people almost reflexively keep coming back to it, a habit that long ago made “Googling” synonymous with looking things up on the internet.
The trial begins just a couple weeks after the 25th anniversary of the first investment in the company — a $100,000 check written by Sun Microsystems co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim that enabled Page and Sergey Brin to set up shop in a Silicon Valley garage.
Today, Google’s corporate parent, Alphabet, is worth $1.7 trillion and employs 182,000 people, with most of the money coming from $224 billion in annual ad sales flowing through a network of digital services anchored by a search engine that fields billions of queries a day.
The Justice Department’s antitrust case echoes the one it filed against Microsoft in 1998. Regulators then accused Microsoft of forcing computer makers that relied on its dominant Windows operating system to also feature Microsoft’s Internet Explorer — just as the internet was starting to go mainstream. That bundling practice crushed competition from the once-popular browser Netscape.
Several members of the Justice Department’s team in the Google case — including lead Justice Department litigator Kenneth Dintzer — also worked on the Microsoft investigation.
Google could be hobbled if the trial ends in concessions that undercut its power. One possibility is that the company could be forced to stop paying Apple and other companies to make Google the default search engine on smartphones and computers.
Or the legal battle could cause Google to lose focus. That’s what happened to Microsoft after its antitrust showdown with the Justice Department. Distracted, the software giant struggled to adapt to the impact of internet search and smartphones. Google capitalized on that distraction to leap from its startup roots into an imposing powerhouse.
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