November 26, 2024
Walt Disney Co. has agreed to pay $43.3 million to resolve a long-running lawsuit brought by a group of female employees who alleged gender pay discrimination at the Burbank entertainment giant.
The proposed settlement was filed Monday in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
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In addition to setting up a fund to pay plaintiffs, Disney has agreed to hire an “industrial/organizational psychologist” to provide training to Disney executives overseeing the organization of jobs. Disney also said it would hire an outside labor economist to perform a pay equity analysis of certain positions for three years, according to the settlement document.
The lawsuit began in April 2019 with two women — LaRonda Rasmussen and Karen Moore — in Southern California and eventually swelled to nine who alleged they were being paid substantially less than men who were performing similar duties. Despite Disney’s objections, a Superior Court judge granted class-action status to a portion of the case last December, allowing the named plaintiffs to represent thousands of other women who work at Disney and bring their claims under California’s Equal Pay Act.
More than 14,000 women are eligible for a portion of the award, according to the settlement document.
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San Francisco attorney Lori Andrus first brought the suit. Two other law firms — Cohen Milstein and Goldstein Borgen Dardarian & Ho — eventually joined the case to represent the plaintiffs.
Read Disney Agrees to Pay $43 Million to Settle Lawsuit Over Women’s Pay.