Disney sued for $150 million in underpayments to employees – Kommersant

A class-action lawsuit has been filed against The Walt Disney Company. The company has been accused of systematically underpaying women in California since 2015. As follows from the analysis of data on salaries, for eight years, employees have not received about $ 151.6 million. This was reported Reuters And The Guardian.

Labor economist and UC Irvine professor David Neumark, whose analysis is cited in the lawsuit, calculated that on average there is a 2% difference between the salaries of men and women at Disney working in the same positions and doing similar work.

The economist studied data on the salaries of employees of Disney Studios, parks and resorts, Disney +, ABC, Lucasfilm, Searchlight Pictures and other large organizations. They are covered by the same compensation system. When comparing the salaries of men and women, the economist took into account the level of employment, tenure and other factors that affect wages. His analysis indicates that the company is violating the California law on equal pay for women and men.

Shona Swanson, deputy general counsel and head of Disney employment law, denied the allegations against the company. “Plaintiffs’ allegations of an alleged gender pay gap are simply false, which we will demonstrate in the course of the trial,” she said, according to the Guardian in a letter.

The first lawsuit against Disney was filed in 2019 by the company’s product development manager, Laronda Rasmussen. This happened after the woman found out that six men with the same position earned significantly more than her. For example, a newly hired male employee with a few years less work experience earned $20,000 more. Nine current and former employees later joined the lawsuit.

Anastasia Larina