A group of nearly 4,000 current and former Black Google employees will split a $50 million pot after the online search giant agreed to that settlement in a lawsuit that alleges Black employees were paid lower wages and denied promotions.

It has not been a great year, in the courtroom at least, for the Mountain View-based search company Google, or their parent company Alphabet. Last summer, a federal judge ruled that Google had an illegal monopoly in their internet search department, and had inflated prices for that service. Because of that, the US Department of Justice moved to force Google to sell off their Chrome browser this past November. And Google took another gut punch when a different federal judge ruled last month that Google had a monopoly in online advertising. Google is appealing these decisions.  

And it may be financially small potatoes for Google compared to those landmark rulings, but the Bay Area News Group reports that now Google has agreed to pay a $50 million settlement to a large pool of current and former Black employees of the company who alleged racial workplace discrimination.

The suit was originally brought by former Google recruiter April Curley, a Black woman who was hired, ironically, to recruit more Black Google employees. But according to the UK tech publication Silicon, Curley’s 2022 discrimination lawsuit said Google/Alphabet had a “racially biased corporate culture” wherein Black employees were allegedly paid lower wages, denied promotions over biased performance ratings, and generally subjected to a hostile race-based work environment.

While Google agreed to pay the $50 million settlement, the settlement is also one of those admit-to-no-wrongdoing arrangements.

“We strongly disagree with the allegations that we treated anyone improperly,” Google said in a statement. That statement added that the company would “continue to analyze pay to identify unexplained differences based on race,” and would “maintain well-publicized methods for employees to report concerns related to the terms and conditions of their employment.”

The $50 million will be split between roughly 4,000 current and former Black Google employees. Google also agreed to not force employees into mandatory arbitration for employment disputes until 2028.

The settlement agreement still requires a judge’s approval. But this agreement follows a $28 million settlement Google agreed to pay just last month for allegedly paying Latino, Indigenous, and Pacific Islander employees less money, and a $118 million settlement in 2022 in a class-action suit alleging discrimination against women employees.

Related: Federal Judge Rules Against Google In Second Antitrust Case, This One About Its Ad Network [SFist]

Image: CHONGQING, CHINA - APRIL 20: In this photo illustration, the Google logo is displayed on a smartphone screen, with the colorful Google branding seen in the background, on April 20, 2025, in Chongqing, China. Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., is a multinational technology company best known for its search engine, Android operating system, YouTube, cloud computing, and AI-powered services. (Photo illustration by Cheng Xin/Getty Images)