Uber: when they settle, they settle high

The new CFO won’t like this… because Uber has agreed to pay $1.9M to 56 current and former employees to settle claims of harassment, gender discrimination, and a hostile work environment. Actually, that sum is nothing to Uber – the real damage is likely to be found in the negative PR the company continues to receive. Additionally, $5.1M will be divvied up amongst 480 workers included in the lawsuit.

 

So, what is this all about… the lawsuit was filed in October of last year and focused on unequal pay between Latina engineers and their white and Asian coworkers. The women in the suit alleged that female and employees of color were receiving unfair performance reviews due to their gender and race. The performance reviews would go on to negatively impact their pay at the company.

 

Uber fixed this… by increasing pay and making pay equal for all based on cut-and-dry metrics like location, job, and tenure. The company also took a second look at salaries after paying out bonuses in March. In July, the company’s head of human resources resigned after an internal investigation regarding how she handled such racial discrimination claims within the company. So it looks like this matter has been resolved – but we’ll see if Uber can put their disastrous PR days behind them…