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Workplace Bias and Gender Pay Equity in Silicon Valley, 2017

By Eric Akira Tate and Kathiana Aurelien
December 01, 2017

It was only a couple of years ago, on March 27, 2015, that a jury rejected Ellen Pao's gender discrimination claims and rendered a defense verdict in favor of her former employer, a prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firm. The Ellen Pao case, and the media attention it received, helped place concerns about bias and gender pay equity in the spotlight in Silicon Valley. Now, issues of bias and pay equity are again taking center stage, with almost daily media reports about Silicon Valley's gender problem and a continuing list of companies and notable Silicon Valley figures being taken to task with allegations of inappropriate conduct toward women. These men include, but are not limited to, Binary Capital co-founder Justin Caldbeck and 500 Startups founder Dave McClure. High-profile lawsuits recently have been filed, including against UploadVR with allegations of a sex room in the office, and against Google for violation of the California Equal Pay Act.

Contrary to the Ellen Pao result, and even before allegations regarding Harvey Weinstein began to dominate the airwaves, 2017 has witnessed CEOs, other employees, and board members lose their positions over bias and gender equity concerns, confirming that organizations unable to effectively address these issues in the workplace do so at their peril. This article highlights recent key legislative and case law developments involving issues of bias and gender pay equity in the workplace of which all employers with operations in California should be aware.

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