Disney settles $43m lawsuit over alleged gender pay gap

Walt Disney has agreed to pay $43 million to settle a lawsuit that alleged that its former female employees were earning less than their male colleagues.

Global conglomerate Walt Disney has recently agreed to pay a total of $43.3 million to settle a lawsuit pertaining to allegations that its female employees based in California earned $150 million less than their male colleagues over an eight-year period.

According to Reuters, as part of the settlement, Disney has agreed to retain a labour economist for a three-year period to analyse and ensure pay equity among full-time, non-union California employees below the vice president level and accordingly address the differences they find.

Former Disney employee LaRonda Rasmussen originally filed the lawsuit in 2019 after discovering that six men with the same job title as her were earning substantially more, with one of them being an employee who had several years less experience than her. It’s alleged that this employee was being paid $20,000 a year more than Rasmussen.

As Rasmussen filed her lawsuit, the floodgates opened, with 9,000 current and former female employees of Disney eventually joined the suit.

“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, a partner at Andrus Anderson, one of the law firms that represented the woman.

Initially, Disney attempted to put a stop to the class action. According to Women’s Agenda, Disney opposed the allegations of pay bias, stating that it categorically denies “they pay any female employee less than her similarly situated male coworkers and will vigorously defend themselves against each plaintiff’s individual claims”. However, a judge disagreed and allowed the lawsuit to continue.

“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,” said a spokesperson from Disney.

Despite Disney’s claims, the lawsuit was also supported by an analysis of Disney’s human resource data from April 2015 until December 2022. This analysis revealed that female employees at Disney, during that period, were being paid 2 per cent less than their male counterparts.

Reuters reported that the settlement agreement, which was filed in a California state court, still requires approval by a judge, according to the lawyers of the workers.