A whistleblower has filed a complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission saying that Google didn’t update rates of comparable full-time roles in 16 countries over the last nine years.
The amount of back pay owed in more than 16 countries adds up to more than $100 million, according to the complaint.
In a statement, Google chief compliance officer Spyro Karetsos said, “It’s clear that this process has not been handled consistent with the high standards to which we hold ourselves as a company. We’re going to figure out what went wrong here, why it happened, and we’re going to make it right.”
If Google faces an inquiry or is fined, then this problem could become even more expensive. Even at those numbers, it shouldn’t slow down Google or its parent company Alphabet, which notched $18.5 billion in profit during Q2 of this year alone.
