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Equality, diversity and inclusionLatest NewsEqual pay

Disney agrees $43.3m gender pay settlement

by Kavitha Sivasubramaniam 27 Nov 2024
by Kavitha Sivasubramaniam 27 Nov 2024 JHVEPhoto
JHVEPhoto

The Walt Disney Company will fork out $43.3 million as it settles a gender pay lawsuit concerning around 9,000 women.

Both current and former employees brought the claim, alleging they were paid less than their male colleagues for almost a decade.

The settlement agreement came about after LaRonda Rasmussen filed a lawsuit in 2019, when she discovered that six men who had the same job title were getting paid a lot more than her. One male colleague, who had much less experience than Rasmussen, earned £20,000 more per year.

Despite objections from Disney, last December a judge granted class-action status to part of the case. This enabled those named in the action to represent thousands of other workers and bring their claims under California’s Equal Pay Act.

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According to the settlement document, more than 14,000 women are eligible to claim part of the award.

As part of the deal, the entertainment and media giant must employ a labour economist to review pay equity for three years, looking at full-time, non-union California staff below the vice president level. The three law firms representing the plaintiffs said the company would then be required to fix the differences.

While Disney agreed the payout, the company contested the allegations and didn’t admit fault.

A spokesperson said: “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.”

In a statement, Lori Andrus, a partner at Andrus Anderson that represented the women, said: “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.”

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Kavitha Sivasubramaniam

Kavitha Sivasubramaniam is an experienced journalist, editor and communications professional who has been working in B2B publishing for more than 17 years. After graduating from Bournemouth University with a degree in Multi Media Journalism, Kavitha started her career in local and regional newspapers, before moving to consumer magazines and later trade titles, as well as PR. Specialising in pay and reward, she has been editor of a number of HR publications including Pay & Benefits, Employee Benefits, Benefits Expert, Reward and CIPP’s membership magazine, Professional. In June 2024, she won Pay, Reward and Employee Benefits Journalist of the Year at the Willis Towers Watson media awards. She was also named one of Each Person’s top 20 influential HR bloggers and managed a highly commended content team of the year in 2019.

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