Many technology companies in Silicon Valley are faced with pressure to address gender issues and pay inequity. Particularly, gender inequality has been a controversial issue at Google and upon their recent study to evaluate compensation for women and employees in minority groups, they discovered that men were paid less than women for doing comparable work. Critics of the study say that it is flawed as it did not control for employee’s starting salaries, which largely affects the findings. The company acknowledges that a mere comparison of salaries across similar job titles is a poor measure of equity, and will be undergoing an internal review to ensure processes are fair and equitable.
See "Google Finds It’s Underpaying Many Men as It Addresses Wage Equity", Daisuke Wakabayash, New York Times, March 5, 2019