Walt Disney has agreed to pay $43.3 million to settle a lawsuit that accused the company of underpaying its female employees in California by $150 million over an eight-year period.
The lawsuit, filed in 2019 by LaRonda Rasmussen, claimed that female employees in similar roles were paid significantly less than their male counterparts.
Rasmussen had discovered that six male colleagues with the same job title earned more than she did, including one with less experience who made $20,000 more per year, according to Reuters.
The settlement, announced on Monday, covers approximately 9,000 current and former female employees.
As part of the agreement, Disney will hire a labor economist for three years to analyze pay equity among full-time, non-union employees below the vice president level in California.
The economist will work to identify and address any ongoing gender pay gaps, according to the law firms representing the plaintiffs.
The lawsuit was initially blocked by Disney, but in December 2023, a judge ruled that the class action could proceed.
The case also included an analysis of Disney’s internal pay data from 2015 to 2022, which revealed that women were paid approximately 2% less than men in comparable positions, according to David Neumark, a labor economist at the University of California Irvine.
“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,” Lori Andrus, a partner at Andrus Anderson, said.
The settlement agreement, which has been filed in a California state court, still requires approval from a judge.
