Former Google Employees File Lawsuit Alleging Gender Discrimination

Three former Google employees on Thursday filed a class action complaint against the tech giant, alleging it discriminated against women in pay and promotions, building on a debate of whether gender bias is pervasive at Google.

The three female workers claim that Google placed them in lower job levels than their similarly qualified males, leading to lower pay, and denied the women promotions or transitions to other teams that would have led to better career advancement, according to a copy of the complaint.

The complaint, filed in San Francisco Superior Court, is the latest chapter in a recent flare-up over gender equality at Google. Thursday's complaint comes on the heels of an accusation by the Department of Labor that Google systematically underpays its female employees. Google last month fired James Damore, an engineer, for publishing a memo that attributed Google's gender gap in part to biological differences, not sexism.

Google, part of Alphabet Inc., has said its annual salary analyses show no pay gap among its more than 75,000 employees.

--Jack Nicas contributed to this article.

Write to Yoree Koh at yoree.koh@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 14, 2017 14:11 ET (18:11 GMT)