Disney has agreed to pay $43 million to resolve a lawsuit that claimed the company paid male employees at a higher rate than female workers.
What’s Happening:
- As WESH reports, Disney has agreed to pay $43 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that the company paid female employees less than their male counterparts in similar positions for almost ten years.
- The settlement agreement, which was reached on Monday, stems from a lawsuit filed by LaRonda Rasmussen in 2019.
- She claims that she found six male colleagues with the same job title earning considerably higher salaries than hers, including one person with several years less experience who made $20,000 more per year.
- Around 9,000 women, including both current and former employees, took part in the lawsuit.
- Disney disputed the claims and denied any misconduct.
- As part of the settlement, Disney must hire a labor economist to evaluate pay equity among full-time, non-union employees in California below the vice president level for a period of three years and to rectify any identified disparities, as stated by the three law firms representing the plaintiffs.
- The plaintiffs claimed that Disney paid female employees less than their male counterparts at the time of hiring because of the lower salaries they had earned at previous jobs.
- The Wall Street Journal reported that Disney did not take into account the existing gender pay gaps
- Disney announced that a review of its compensation policies carried out in 2022 revealed that women earned 99.4% of what their male counterparts made.
- The company contended that this scenario should not be classified as a class action lawsuit since salary decisions are determined by multiple managers across different divisions within the large organization.
- The settlement agreement is awaiting judicial approval.
What They're Saying:
- A Spokesperson for Disney said in a statement.“We have always been committed to paying our employees fairly and have demonstrated that commitment throughout this case, and we are pleased to have resolved this matter.”
- Lori Andrus, a partner at Andrus Anderson: “I strongly commend Ms. Rasmussen and the women who brought this discrimination suit against Disney, one of the largest entertainment companies in the world. They risked their careers to raise pay disparity at Disney.
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