In addition to $43-million settlement, Disney commits to other measures addressing pay equity at organisation
Disney has agreed to a $43.25-million settlement in a gender pay discrimination lawsuit filed by current and former female employees.
The settlement is part of a class-action lawsuit that was first filed in 2019 by LaRonda Rasmussen after she found out that six men with the same job title were earning much more than her.
About 9,000 current and former female employees also joined the lawsuit, claiming that Disney's compensation practices resulted in women being paid less than their male counterparts for similar work.
The plaintiffs further alleged that Disney's enterprise-wide pay structure, which included basing new hires' starting salaries on their prior wages, led to gender-based pay disparities. They argued that this violated California's Fair Employment & Housing Act and Equal Pay Act (EPA). In 2023, the EPA class was certified, giving further weight to the plaintiffs' claims.
As part of the settlement agreement, which is pending court approval, Disney will implement several measures to address pay equity. These include hiring an outside industrial consultant to provide training on best practices for benchmarking jobs to market data and reorganising job architecture.
Additionally, Disney will retain a labour economist for three years to conduct pay equity analyses for all full-time, non-union employees below the vice president level in California. It has also committed to addressing any statistically significant pay discrepancies found in these analyses.
"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," a spokesperson from Disney told CNN in a statement.
Meanwhile, Lori Andrus, founding partner of the law firm Andrus Anderson, praised the plaintiffs for their actions.
"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," Andrus said in a statement.
"I'm also encouraged that Disney has committed to run annual pay equity reviews to further promote pay equity. I believe this will help strengthen the company and its brand as a key employer and contributor to California's economy."
