Goldman Sachs, Google women march ahead with gender bias suits

[SAN FRANCISCO] The women of Wall Street got a boost Friday with a judge's ruling allowing a group of as many as 2,300 female employees of Goldman Sachs Group Inc to pursue claims they didn't get paid or promoted like their male counterparts.

The lawsuit dates back to 2010 when two women accused Goldman Sachs of a "culture of discrimination" and a boys' club atmosphere that included client trips to strip clubs. They alleged that female vice-presidents earned 21 per cent less than their male counterparts, while about a quarter fewer women were promoted to the position of managing director than men.

US district judge Analisa Torres in Manhattan concluded that the women satisfied legal standards to proceed with a class action alleging both that they were subject to explicit discrimination and treated unfairly by company policies that weren't intentionally biased. She excluded the boys' club claim.

Goldman Sachs had no immediate comment on the ruling.

It was also a big week for women in Silicon Valley.

Google lost its bid to dismiss a class-action gender bias case brought by female engineers. They allege that policies at the Alphabet Inc unit unlawfully weigh new employees' previous salaries to determine wages.

Female engineers at Uber Technologies Inc, meanwhile, reached a US$10 million settlement resolving claims that the ride-hailing giant pays women and people of colour less than their peers and doesn't promote them as frequently as males, whites and Asians.

The accord includes a provision requiring Uber to regularly report its diversity metrics for three years and work with a consultant to address its job classification and compensation system.

BLOOMBERG