Riot Games, the developer of League of Legends, are being taken to court over gender discrimination by one current and one former employee, building on reports in recent months of a sexist culture within the company.
The lawsuit says that, “like many of Riot Games’ female employees, Plaintiffs have been denied equal pay and found their careers stifled because they are women. Moreover, Plaintiffs have also seen their working conditions negatively impacted because of the ongoing sexual harassment, misconduct, and bias which predominate the sexually-hostile working environment of Riot Games.”
Throughout the complaint, current employee Melanie McCracken and former employee Jessica Negron state that they’ve been denied equal pay, in violation of California’s Equal Pay Act, that a leaning toward hiring “core gamers” is an veiled method of hiring and promoting men over women, and that Riot Games had failed to make enough changes in the wake of former reporting on a sexist culture.
In particular, despite Riot apologising at the end of August for this and promising to make changes, Kotaku note that while the company has reportedly fired many of the people accused of harbouring a toxic culture, several of the most highly positioned ones are still in place.
Nate
It’s crazy that this is still an issue nowadays. We seem to be so sensitive to minorities now, almost to a fault at times, and yet basic gender pay gap still exists.
bunimomike
Don’t confuse the gender pay gap with the Equal Pay Act.
The gender pay gap is absolute hogwash on so many levels.
Nate
I’m not familiar with the terms, whatever it is that means women aren’t paid the same for the same job as a man!
bunimomike
You’ve got it, fella. That’s the Equal Pay Act. We’ve had it here in the UK for over four decades. Same goes for the US, I believe. However, if the above is contravening that law (which it mentions it is), Riot need to sort that out ASAP. Silly buggers.
However, the gender pay gap – which we’re seeing the likes of the BBC bang on about – is so disingenuous it’s untrue. They’re measuring what men earn compared to women without looking at the job type. I kid you not! For example, they’re trying to make an issue out of stewardesses not being paid as much as pilots and because there’s more female air stewards and more male pilots (than their respective gender opposites), it’s now a “thing” which is utter lunacy.