Leaked Google Spreadsheet Reveals Black Employees Earn $20K Less Than White Colleagues

A leaked Google spreadsheet has revealed that Black employees at Google make $20,000 less on average than their white coworkers.

Insider obtained an internal Google spreadsheet with over 12,000 U.S. staff reporting their annual salaries in 2022.

The data covers software engineers, business analysts, salespeople, and legal counsel roles. 

Race disparities

The data sheet found that Black staff at Google tend to make $20,000 less than their white co-workers, with $147,000 going to Black workers and $170,000 going to white workers.

White staff also got $40,000 more in equity than the Black team, with white workers getting $92,000 and Black workers earning $50,500.

Bonuses also differed, with white workers getting $31,140 and Black workers earning $25,000.

Indigenous and Hispanic staff also make less than their white and Asian co-workers.

It also found disparities between women’s and men’s salaries, with men making more in every sector except the direct sales role, where females made a significant amount more.

Employees who had been at the company longer and worked at a higher level tended to have higher salaries, and cities such as New York had higher wages than Colorado and Georgia.

Google spokesperson Tamani Jayasinghe said, “We compensate Googlers based on what they do, not who they are.”

“We run a rigorous pay equity analysis every year to make sure salaries, bonuses, and equity awards are fair. This spreadsheet has old, self-reported data that has not been verified and is not an accurate representation of compensation across our workforce.”

Black and Hispanic software engineers

Google uses a level system to determine employee’s pay grades and responsibilities, with a higher level usually meaning more pay and higher expectations.

The spectrum runs from level 0 (interns) to level 10, or level 11, a “senior fellow” role.

The employee with the highest base salary reported being a level 7 software engineer with a base salary of $718,000.

Most software engineers on the sheet reported making a base salary of between $100,000 and $375,000, and the company said the median total compensation for employees in 2022 was $279,802.

Black software engineers totalled $151,500 in salaries, with $70,000 in equity and a $27,250 bonus.

By contrast, white software engineers made $175,000 with $99,000 in equity and a $31,000 bonus.