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Uber Faces Engineers' Lawsuit Alleging Gender, Race Bias (bloomberg.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the workplace-disputes dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Uber was sued by three Latina engineers who claim the company pays women and people of color less than their peers and doesn't promote them as frequently as males, whites and Asians. The three women from the ride-hailing company, one of whom still works there, accused Uber of violating California's Equal Pay Act in a complaint filed Tuesday in San Francisco state court on behalf of all engineers similarly held back. The women filed the complaint under a state statute that gives employees the right to step into the shoes of the state labor secretary to bring enforcement actions. That law also may give them a way around a provision in Uber's contracts requiring workplace disputes to go through one-on-one arbitration instead of as group actions in court. "Female employees and employees of color are systematically undervalued compared to their male and white or Asian American peers because female employees and employees of color receive, on average, lower rankings despite equal or better performance," according to the complaint against Uber. In July, Uber said that it adjusted salaries to ensure equity in pay for women and minorities.

20 of 123 comments (clear)

  1. "Adjusted salaries" - WTF? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "Uber said that it adjusted salaries to ensure equity in pay for women and minorities."

    What the hell?

    So, their jobs pay differently, depending on your gender or race? What. The. Fuck.

    1. Re:"Adjusted salaries" - WTF? by sycodon · · Score: 5, Insightful

      There are two sides to this coin.

      In Austin, TX, the Fire Department was sued by the Obama Administration for racial discrimination. Why? Because minorities were failing entrance examines in far greater numbers than whites.

      Was the examine racist? Not on its face. Questions included math, some chemistry, first aid, and other questions completely relevant to being a firefighter. But, the doctrine of "disparate impact" (a hugely inappropriate doctrine) says that the examine was, in fact, racist due solely to the passing rates of various demographic groups. This, despite that fact that there were some minority applicants who aced the examine.

      So we have a situation where an unequal outcome is the result of an actual deficit of knowledge, which happen to be concentrated in some groups.

      Who knows if these minorities are actually under performing or not, but it wouldn't really matter because if most of them are, then the Disparate Impact rules takes affect.

      --
      When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    2. Re:"Adjusted salaries" - WTF? by supernova87a · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Disparate impact is completely grounded on the principle that every demographic should be as well represented as every other demographic. That is where it is fundamentally flawed.

      If that is the case, why do we bother testing people at all, since everyone should have the same intelligence / experience / desire / skill? Is that not just as determined from birth as race / gender / etc?

    3. Re:"Adjusted salaries" - WTF? by sycodon · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Facts don't have a racial bias.

      And it's far easier to dumb down your test than it is to fight the justice department.

      --
      When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    4. Re:"Adjusted salaries" - WTF? by sycodon · · Score: 2

      Not to mention that Austin is a very Liberal town. If someone says they are biased, then their default response is to get on their knees, beg forgiveness and conform to whatever the authority says they need to.

      Kind of like some loser on campus prostrating himself before the community and lamenting his "White Privilege"

      --
      When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    5. Re:"Adjusted salaries" - WTF? by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 2

      Whenever someone asks what drives this social justice thinking, I inevitably give them this talk by Evan Sayet entitled "Understanding How Modern Liberals Think". Evan also happens to be Jewish & grew up in New York as a liberal but eventually noticed some serious problems with the Left's way of thinking.

      I can't do his talk justice, but essentially the premise is that the Left wants/believes in equality so badly that it ends up punishing those who've make correct decisions and supporting those who've made bad ones in order to reach equality of outcome.

      Over the last few decades, as Western society has weakened, victimhood has become very powerful tool - because for some reason...people think that the weaker someone can claim to be, the more power we should hand them.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    6. Re:"Adjusted salaries" - WTF? by aicrules · · Score: 2

      lower the bar! We need dumber fire fighters! What a great idea. Moron. The justice department is racist.

    7. Re:"Adjusted salaries" - WTF? by Type44Q · · Score: 4, Insightful

      What, were you expecting compensation to be based on skills and performance??

    8. Re:"Adjusted salaries" - WTF? by QuadEddie · · Score: 2

      Yeah, we as techies expect a meritocracy in the workplace, not a skin color lottery.

    9. Re:"Adjusted salaries" - WTF? by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 2

      So, your solution to injustice is more injustice. Do you or do you not know this has been tried about a billion times and doesn't work? You do not fix some people's problems by harming other innocent people. It just generates resentment which results in negative outcomes. It does make leftists feel better about themselves, though, which I suppose is the whole point.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
  2. Is there a problem? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Uber was sued by three Latina engineers who claim the company pays women and people of color less than their peers and doesn't promote them as frequently as males, whites and Asians. The three women from the ride-hailing company

    As we all know here, there is a huge difference between an average and a good engineer in terms of productivity and value to the company.

    There is nothing here to indicate these three were equal quality engineers or not. Maybe they were and Uber is evil. But why do we have to assume everyone deserves equal pay just for showing up regardless of what they actually do?

    The ERA is equal pay for equal work. There is nothing to indicate the work is equal. Maybe it is, but it's just sad and disgusting that that's rendered a non-issue in 2017 America.

    1. Re:Is there a problem? by ScentCone · · Score: 2

      Plaintiffs assert equality of skill and productivity when it suits them to do so, and will rely on SJW jurors to avoid at all costs any objective measurement of their value, relative to other employees. Same old routine. And if they don't have an internal document asserting that a given engineer is equally productive, equally present week after week, works as many hours, remains as up-to-speed, has the same communications skills, and is otherwise exactly as valuable as somebody else who makes a dollar more a year, then they'll simply assert that the assessment process isn't fair either. This has nothing, whatsoever, to do with having Latina heritage or specific reproductive organs. Unless it's help to cite those things while using the Sue Your Boss law to get a huge paycheck for the lawyers (the boss has to pay them). Gee, I wonder what the motivation could possibly be.

      --
      Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
  3. Poor Asians by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Those poor Asians. They get discriminated against in university admissions with the blessing of the federal government and SJWs, and now they're not even included in discrimination lawsuits any more. In fact they're named right up with the evil white males as being part of the problem. I really feel for them, they have to work twice as hard for the same result that everyone else gets.

    --
    Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    1. Re:Poor Asians by JeffOwl · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I will be pilloried for even bringing it up, but I am asking a sincere question. Why have East Asians done so well in the US in Universities and in business, especially tech and medicine, while being a minority from a different continent? A century ago, Asian Americans were mostly unskilled laborers. They worked on rail roads, in mines, in laundries, etc... Yet even though they started out poor, were subject to racial violence and widespread discrimination, many Asians managed to move up the socioeconomic ladder. And yes, they did not look like European Americans and did not talk like European Americans. There are many articles that talk about Asians tending to have stronger family units, placing more value on education to the point of sacrifice so that the kids could go to better schools, believe that hard work can lead to academic success rather than requiring a natural talent, etc... All of this has led to Asian Americans earning a different stereotype from what they had in the early 20th Century. Or at least that's how much of the narrative is being delivered. Is that really right? Did Asian Americans just overcome much of the institutional bias through hard work and sacrifice? Is it really that simple or was there another change in the psyche of America?

    2. Re:Poor Asians by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      What no one wants to ever admit is that genetics is 90% of pretty much everything, and what isn't covered by genetics is covered by culture. Look at what cultures favor education and you'll see who does well in a culture founded by people who favor education. Duh!

    3. Re:Poor Asians by david_thornley · · Score: 2

      Nobody intelligent admits that genetics is 90% of everything because it isn't. Last I checked, something like 50% of the variance in intelligence in people was accounted for by looking at the intelligence of their parents. This doubtless overstates the genetic component, since there's lots of environmental factors that tend to be similar between parents and children.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  4. The "Sue Your Boss" Act by John+Jorsett · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This suit is being brought under California's Private Attorney General Act, aka the "Sue Your Boss" law. The state will get 75% of any payout, but the real bonanza will be to the attorneys. Because the employer is on the hook for all legal costs, they'll profit handsomely. This law was a gift to the plaintiff bar and has resulted in things like a 2013 suit against Goodyear Tire for allegedly failing to issue wage statements that included the last four digits of employees’ social security or employee ID numbers. The plaintiff got $1k while the attorneys got $105k.

  5. Re:You know... by TheCastro1689 · · Score: 2

    Also they're usually illegal: http://www.npr.org/2014/04/13/...

  6. Sounds like corporate immaturity by ErichTheRed · · Score: 2

    Large companies don't seem to have these issues because they have a whole legal and HR team advising every single action. Also, every place I've worked has had a zero tolerance policy when things like sexual harassment are involved. Basically unless you're an executive or top salesman or connected in some other way, they don't mess around when they start getting complaints about people. (Sales always gets a free pass in my experience, however.)

    Maybe as Uber has been growing so quickly, and were built on disrupting everything, they felt they didn't need to go this route. But look at companies like IBM...they've been dismantling their entire US workforce and firing everyone over a certain age, and have been doing it all legally from what it seems.

  7. Re: Poor Asians - yes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yes. It is really that simple.

    As a class, they work harder, spend more time on school work as children, have families that demand they always do better and get top grades, stronger family support structures that value education, and frown upon pop culture idol worship.

    Work. School. Family. Success.

    That simple.