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Disney agrees to pay $43 million to settle lawsuit over women’s pay

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Disney agrees to pay $43 million to settle lawsuit over women's pay

As a seasoned cinephile with over three decades of industry experience, I’ve seen my fair share of Hollywood powerhouses grapple with internal conflicts and public scrutiny. The recent settlement between Walt Disney Co. and its female employees for alleged gender pay discrimination is a stark reminder of the ongoing battle for equality in the workplace, even within the hallowed halls of one of the most influential entertainment giants in the world.

Disney Company, after a prolonged legal dispute, consented to compensate a collective of female workers to the tune of $43.3 million. These employees had claimed that they were victims of gender-based wage disparity within Disney’s Burbank-based entertainment empire.

The proposed settlement was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court late Monday.

In the course of the settlement, Disney refused to acknowledge any wrongdoing. The company has consistently denied accusations that they paid women lower wages than their male counterparts, and previously argued that the case combined the circumstances of a select few women to create doubt about the company’s compensation policies.

A Disney representative stated, “We’ve consistently prioritized fair compensation for our team members, as shown in this instance. We’re happy to announce that we’ve successfully settled the issue at hand.

Beyond establishing a $43.25-million compensation fund for plaintiffs, Disney also consented to employ an Industrial/Organizational psychologist who would offer training to their executive team responsible for job organization. Furthermore, they agreed to recruit an external labor economist who would conduct a pay equity evaluation of specific positions over a three-year period, as outlined in the settlement agreement.

The legal action commenced in April 2019 with two women, LaRonda Rasmussen and Karen Moore, based in Southern California. Over time, this number grew to nine women who claimed they were receiving significantly lower pay than their male counterparts performing comparable tasks at Disney. Despite Disney’s resistance, a Superior Court judge authorized the case as a class action last December. This means that the initial plaintiffs can now represent numerous other women employed by Disney and pursue their claims under California’s Equal Pay Act.

The settlement states that the class consists of women who worked or will work for a California-based Disney company, during the period from April 1, 2015, to December 28, 2024. They should have held positions below Vice President, be employed on a full-time, salaried basis without union representation.

One point consistently argued by the plaintiff’s legal team is that Disney has historically paid women less than men, thereby setting up a compensation structure where women were continually underpaid as they progressed within the company.

Initially, a lawsuit was filed by San Francisco lawyer Lori Andrus. Later on, two additional legal firms – Cohen Milstein and Goldstein Borgen Dardarian & Ho – decided to participate in the case, taking up representation for the plaintiffs.

Rasmussen served as a product development manager at Disney’s Glendale office and brought up a concern about her pay being unequal, claiming in court documents that men with the same position earned between $16,000 and nearly $40,000 more annually than her.

A few months later, Rasmussen mentioned this problem first. In her original grievance, she stated that Disney modified her salary, yet asserted that the disparity in pay “was not because of gender.

Moore, who worked as a senior copyright administrator out of Burbank, stated in the court case that she felt dissuaded when it came to seeking a management role.

L.A. County Judge Elihu M. Berle must approve the settlement.

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2024-11-26 20:32

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