Google has argued that it would cost too much and take up too much time to obtain data on what it pays its female staff, after US Department of Labour lawyers sought salary records in federal court in a case where the search behemoth is accused of underpaying women on its rolls.
The company, which earns US$28 billion in annual income, told the court on Friday that it would take nearly 500 hours and US$100,000 to comply with the DoL demands, The Guardian reported.
The court appearance was part of an ongoing DoL investigation which is seeking to probe claims that Google systematically underpays women who are on its payroll.
In court, DoL lawyer Ian Eliasoph made light of the company’s defence, saying, “Google would be able to absorb the cost as easy as a dry kitchen sponge could absorb a single drop of water.”
{loadposition sam08}The DoL lawsuit was filed in January and accuses Google of breaking federal laws by saying it cannot provide salary history and contact information of employees for a government audit.
Google is a contractor for the US federal government and is thus required to meet the requirements of equal opportunity laws and permit the review of records.
One of the arguments Google mounted in court was that men and women would earn differing amounts if they had started out on an unequal footing but that there would eventually be convergence.
However the DoL's Eliasoph disagreed, saying that it was incorrect to argue that historical salary data had no relevance to continued differences in wage scales.
He also said that just because the company had 21,000 employees it could not take routine requests and make them sound complicated because of the number of people involved.