The US Department of Labor (DoL) has said that the "discrimination against women in Google is quite extreme." The government department further stated that the tech company had violated employment laws in relation to the salaries of its female employees. Interestingly, earlier this month, Google claimed to have closed the gender pay gap globally.

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As part of an ongoing DoL investigation, the government has reportedly collected information that suggests the internet search giant is violating federal employment laws with evidence of "systemic compensation disparities," agency officials said.  

"We found systemic compensation disparities against women pretty much across the entire workforce," said Janette Wipper, a DoL regional director, in a court in San Francisco on Friday. He further added that although the investigation is not complete, the department has received "compelling evidence of very significant discrimination against women in the most common positions at Google headquarters." On the other hand, Google has strongly denied the accusations of inequities, saying that it does not have a gender pay gap.

The allegations against one of the largest and most powerful companies in Silicon Valley emerged at a hearing in a federal court as part of a lawsuit the DoL filed against Google in January, asking the company to disclose its salary data and documents to the government. These allegations come at a time when the male-dominated tech industry is facing immense scrutiny over pay disparities, gender discrimination, and sexual harassment.

Google attorney Lisa Barnett Sween noted that the DoL's request is a fishing expedition that has no relevance at all to the compliance review. She added that the request was an unconstitutional violation of the company's fourth amendment right to protection from unreasonable searches. To this, Marc Pilotin, a DoL attorney, said that for some reason or another, Google wants to hide its pay-related information.