Walt Disney has agreed to pay $43.3 million to settle a lawsuit claiming its female employees in California were paid millions less than their male counterparts for more than eight years, according to a joint statement by the three law firms representing the plaintiffs.
Settlement details
The women claimed that Disney's actions violated California’s Fair Employment & Housing Act (FEHA) because its compensation practices had a disparate impact on women and California’s Equal Pay Act (EPA) as it paid women less than men for substantially similar jobs.
They also claimed that before 2018, the company had a compensation policy that paid new female employees lower salaries than their male counterparts for similar jobs because Disney would base starting pay on prior salary, which historically includes gender-based disparities.
Disney has agreed, as part of the settlement, to retain an outside industrial consultant to provide training on best practices for benchmarking jobs against external market data and organizing jobs within its job architecture.
It also agreed to retain a labor economist for the next three years to perform a pay equity analysis of all full-time, non-union California employees below the level of vice president and to take appropriate steps to address any statistically significant pay differences found.
The plaintiffs, represented by Cohen Milstein, Andrus Anderson, and Goldstein Borgen Dardarian & Ho, include women who were employed in California between April 2015 and December 2024 below the level of vice president and in a salaried, non-union position with specified job levels.
“This settlement would not be possible without these courageous women. Because of them, women can expect equitable treatment at Disney in the future,” said Christine Webber, co-chair of Cohen Milstein’s Civil Rights & Employment practice.
The settlement agreement still requires approval by a judge, according to Tuesday's statement.
Disney's pay gap
LaRonda Rasmussen filed the lawsuit in 2019 after learning that six men with the same job title earned more than her, including one man with several years less experience who earned $20,000 a year more than she did, Reuters reported. Around 9,000 current and former female employees of the company joined the suit.
The report added that the case was supported by an analysis of Disney's human resource data from April 2015 until December 2022 that found female Disney employees were paid roughly 2% less than their male counterparts. The analysis was conducted by David Neumark, a University of California Irvine professor and labour economist.
"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,” said Lori Andrus, founding partner of Andrus Anderson on Tuesday.
Settlement details
The women claimed that Disney's actions violated California’s Fair Employment & Housing Act (FEHA) because its compensation practices had a disparate impact on women and California’s Equal Pay Act (EPA) as it paid women less than men for substantially similar jobs.
They also claimed that before 2018, the company had a compensation policy that paid new female employees lower salaries than their male counterparts for similar jobs because Disney would base starting pay on prior salary, which historically includes gender-based disparities.
Disney has agreed, as part of the settlement, to retain an outside industrial consultant to provide training on best practices for benchmarking jobs against external market data and organizing jobs within its job architecture.
It also agreed to retain a labor economist for the next three years to perform a pay equity analysis of all full-time, non-union California employees below the level of vice president and to take appropriate steps to address any statistically significant pay differences found.
The plaintiffs, represented by Cohen Milstein, Andrus Anderson, and Goldstein Borgen Dardarian & Ho, include women who were employed in California between April 2015 and December 2024 below the level of vice president and in a salaried, non-union position with specified job levels.
“This settlement would not be possible without these courageous women. Because of them, women can expect equitable treatment at Disney in the future,” said Christine Webber, co-chair of Cohen Milstein’s Civil Rights & Employment practice.
The settlement agreement still requires approval by a judge, according to Tuesday's statement.
Disney's pay gap
LaRonda Rasmussen filed the lawsuit in 2019 after learning that six men with the same job title earned more than her, including one man with several years less experience who earned $20,000 a year more than she did, Reuters reported. Around 9,000 current and former female employees of the company joined the suit.
The report added that the case was supported by an analysis of Disney's human resource data from April 2015 until December 2022 that found female Disney employees were paid roughly 2% less than their male counterparts. The analysis was conducted by David Neumark, a University of California Irvine professor and labour economist.
"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,” said Lori Andrus, founding partner of Andrus Anderson on Tuesday.
