A former employee of Niantic, the studio behindPokemon GO, has filed a lawsuit against the company, alleging discrimination against female employees, including employees who are women of color. The accusations against thePokemon GOdeveloper claim that the company favors male employees, which has created an environment that is isolating to female staff.
This is certainly not the first time a game company has gone under fire for discriminating or harassing female workers. Just last year,Blizzard faced major controversywhen lawsuits were filed against the company. This recent lawsuit filed by a former Niantic employee has put a spotlight on discrepancies in pay when it comes to male and female workers. The former employee has chosen to be anonymous, but was one of the 230 staff who were unfortunately laid off last week as Niantic chose to shut down projects in order to focus primarily onPokemon GO.
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The Jane Doe who is filing the lawsuit claims that a male employee was being paid a higher salary despite her having a higher job title than him. In 2022, it was alleged that the male employee was being paid $127,000 per year while she was being paid $105,000. There is currently no news on whether Niantic will try to get the lawsuit dismissed.
Not only does Jane Doe claim in the lawsuit that she was paid lower than male colleagues, but a job listing she viewed revealed to her that she was being paid more than $10,000 less than the bottom end of the average pay for her position. Jane Doe also claims to have taken the issue to Niantic’s Diversity Equity and Inclusion Director and Principal People Partner, but was met with hostility. Other women working at Niantic have reportedly also raised concerns about pay and have accused the company of promoting a sexist work culture, similar to the concerns offemale employees at Sony’s Playstation studios.
Although these claims are currently alleged, it’s important that they are taken incredibly seriously and handled with great care.
