Just a few days ago, Niantic announced a sudden wave of layoffs, the cancellation of several games, and left ‘Pokémon Go’ as the sole branch the company could rely on to generate profits. Today, to add insult to injury, we have learned that a former employee has filed a sexual discrimination lawsuit against them. Things are not looking good for Niantic, without a doubt. And they have brought it upon themselves.
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The lawsuit clearly explains that women, especially women of color, were not being paid equally for the same job positions as men within the company. In fact, it directly accuses Niantic of being a “boys’ club.” Let’s not deceive ourselves, this is more common than it seems in an industry that, morally, sometimes appears to be stuck in the era of eight-bit gaming.
In this case, the woman explains that (don’t be alarmed by the figures) she started earning $70,000 annually in February 2020, but eventually ended up with a salary of $84,000 when she realized that a male colleague with a lower rank was making more money despite having fewer responsibilities. As you can guess, this finding didn’t sit well with her.
To give you an idea: last year, while she was earning $105,000 per year, he, who was one level below her, was making $127,000. In other words, the difference was equivalent to a person’s salary in Spain. Even with a $10,000 annual increase in 2023, she was still below her male colleague. Furthermore, when Niantic was obligated (due to transparency laws) to disclose the pay range for people at her level, she was still $10,000 below the lowest price announced by the company itself.
And what happened when the women at Niantic raised their concerns to higher-ups? You can imagine: pure hostility. In fact, during that meeting, she was told that her job evaluations were being affected by discussing such matters in the workplace, which made her give up her attempt to address the issue. What a wonderful place to work, right? Almost as wonderful as Blizzard or Riot. The video game industry, the little clubhouse where many feel that women shouldn’t have a place. It’s 2023, and it’s about time things changed.
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