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Google pay lawsuit gets class-action status

The plaintiffs could represent a class of 10,800 women.

A Google office.

Google employees sued the company over its pay practices in 2017.

Photo: John Nacion/Getty Images

A lawsuit filed by four women alleging Google violated the California Equal Pay Act has won class-action status, allowing the plaintiffs to represent 10,800 women and potentially seeking more than $600 million in damages.

"This is a significant day for women at Google and in the technology sector, and we are so proud of our brave clients for leading the way," Kelly Dermody, the lead plaintiffs' lawyer, told Bloomberg, which first reported the suit's certification as a class action.

"This is huge," Kelly Ellis, one of the plaintiffs in Ellis vs. Google, tweeted.

Google told Bloomberg it had reviewed workers' pay for the past eight years and adjusted pay upwards where it found inequities.

Owen Thomas

Owen Thomas is a senior editor at Protocol overseeing venture capital and financial technology coverage. He was previously business editor at the San Francisco Chronicle and before that editor-in-chief at ReadWrite, a technology news site. You're probably going to remind him that he was managing editor at Valleywag, Gawker Media's Silicon Valley gossip rag. He lives in San Francisco with his husband and Ramona the Love Terrier, whom you should follow on Instagram.

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