Google Claims It’s Too Costly To Compile A Historic Pay Data

The federal Department of Labor (DOL) has accused Google of having “systemic compensation disparities” and has requested employee salary and contact information as part of the government audit, but Google has failed to fully comply, sparking a lawsuit.

As explained by Think Progress, because Google is a federal contractor, it is subject to periodic audits by the DOL’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) to make sure that it meets existing fair pay standards.

Google is still fighting the DOL’s efforts to get a full dataset of compensation information and contact information for employees so that it can conduct interviews. On Friday, Google officials testified in federal court that it would require 500 hours of work and $100,000 to comply with the demands, on top of claiming that it has already expended 2,300 hours and almost $500,000.

“This is obviously a very time-consuming and burdensome project,” said Lisa Barnett Sween, an attorney for the company.