Disney settles suit over women's pay for $43 million

Walt Disney DIS.N has agreed to pay $43.3 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that its female employees in California earned $150 million less than their male counterparts over eight years, the plaintiffs' lawyers said in a statement on Monday.

The three law firms representing the plaintiffs said that Disney has agreed to retain a labor economist for three years as part of the settlement to analyze pay equity among full-time, non-union California employees below the vice president level and address differences.

LaRonda Rasmussen initially filed the suit in 2019 after she learned that six men with the same job title earned substantially more than her, including one man with several years less experience who was earning $20,000 a year more than she did.

Some 9,000 current and former female entertainment company employees eventually joined the suit. Disney attempted to stop the class action, but a judge ruled last December that it could proceed, Andrus Anderson, one of the law firms, said at the time.

FILE PHOTO: Toy figures of people are seen in front of the displayed Disney + logo, in this illustration taken January 20, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

“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 in Monday's statement.

Disney has previously disputed the lawsuit's allegations and findings. It did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment.

The case was also supported by an analysis of Disney's human resource data from April 2015 until December 2022, which found that female Disney employees were paid roughly 2% less than their male counterparts. David Neumark, a University of California Irvine professor and labor economist, conducted the analysis.

According to the lawyers, the settlement agreement, which was filed in a California state court, still requires a judge's approval.