Uber Technologies Inc. has been accused by three engineers of violating California’s Equal Pay Act. The engineers, all of whom are female and Latina, have sued the rideshare company, alleging that it pays women and people of color less than their colleagues. Further, they also claim that the company did not promote them as regularly as it did employees who were male, white, and Asian.
The lawsuit alleges that Uber is in violation of California’s Equal Pay Act, which attempts to prevent discrimination by requiring equal pay for employees who perform substantially similar work, regardless of gender. It also offers protection against retaliation for employees who wish to compare their salaries.
The claim also states that Uber ranks employees via a “stack ranking system.” Supervisors at Uber allegedly use this system to rank their employees from best to worst. The engineers who filed the complaint say that this creates an arbitrary cutoff among performers and is therefore an invalid system with which to measure performance.
The women are suing under California’s Private Attorneys General Act of 2004. Under this act, the state keeps 75 percent of any penalties awarded, while the remaining 25 percent go to the claimants who brought the suit. Thousands of such lawsuits have been filed in the past decade, and the penalties can accumulate to billions of dollars.
While representatives for Uber have so far declined to comment on the complaint, it is nothing new for the rideshare giant. This particular suit, which was filed on Tuesday in San Francisco State Court, is just one of the most recent against Uber. The company has faced numerous employment lawsuits alleging racial and gender discrimination.
