June 14, 2024
Apple could owe thousands in back pay to 12,000 female employees.
Apple has spent years “intentionally, knowingly, and deliberately paying women less than men for substantially similar work,” a proposed class action lawsuit filed in California on Thursday alleged.
A victory for women suing could mean that more than 12,000 current and former female employees in California could collectively claw back potentially millions in lost wages from an apparently ever-widening wage gap allegedly perpetuated by Apple policies.
The lawsuit was filed by two employees who have each been with Apple for more than a decade, Justina Jong and Amina Salgado. They claimed that Apple violated California employment laws between 2020 and 2024 by unfairly discriminating against California-based female employees in Apple’s engineering, marketing, and AppleCare divisions and “systematically” paying women “lower compensation than men with similar education and experience.”
Apple allegedly has displayed an ongoing bias toward male employees, offering them higher starting salaries and promoting them for the “same behaviors” that female employees allegedly were punished for.
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Eve Cervantez, a lawyer for women suing, said in a press release shared with Ars that these women were put in “a no-win situation.”
“Once women are hired into a lower pay range at Apple, subsequent pay raises or any bonuses are tracked accordingly, meaning they don’t correct the gender pay gap,” Cervantez said. “Instead, they perpetuate and widen the gap because raises and bonuses are based on a percentage of the employee’s base salary.”
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Cohen Milstein is partnering with Eve Cervantez at Altshuler Berzon, as well as Outten & Golden on representing the women in this class action lawsuit.
If you are a current or former Apple employee in California and you believe you may have been impacted by this allegedly discriminatory pay practice by Apple, please contact one of our team members below:
Joe Sellers, Esq. and Phoebe Wolfe, Esq. at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC – T: 202-408-4600
Jim Finberg, Esq. and Eve Cervantes, Esq. at Altshuler Berzon – T: 415- 421-7151
Adam T. Klein, Esq. and Chauniqua Young, Esq. at Outten & Golden LLP – T: 212-658-0349
Read Apple Punishes Women for Same Behaviors That Get Men Promoted, Lawsuit Says.