More than four years ago, two Disney employees — LaRonda Rasmussen and Karen Moore — filed a lawsuit against The Walt Disney Company. The two women claimed that the company was paying them less than men in the same position as them. In the time since the lawsuit was filed, more women have signed onto the complaint. Now, the attorneys representing Rasmussen and Moore, along with lawyers for the other women, are asking a California judge to allow them to turn the lawsuit into a class action one.
Lori Andrus and Joseph M. Sellers and Christine E. Webber are representing the two women and did not waste any time in explaining why they want the judge to expand their suit. Deadline Hollywood shared portions of the redacted filing:
Disney systematically pays women in California less than men. This pay disparity is not based on legitimate factors, it is based on sex, with a less than one in one billion chance it occurred in the absence of discrimination. The class as a whole was thus deprived of over $150 million in wages. Disney violated the Fair Employment & Housing Act (“FEHA”) because its common practices caused a disparate impact on women. It also violated California’s Equal Pay Act (“EPA”), which does not require Plaintiffs to identify the cause of the disparities, because it pays women less for substantially similar jobs. Accordingly, Plaintiffs seek certification of a class of non-union, female employees in California, below the level of Vice President, challenging sex discrimination in compensation at Disney on or after April 1, 2015.
The lawyers claim that the only way to make Disney understand the seriousness of their wrongdoing is to allow the lawsuit to become a class action one. If the judge only allowed the two women to sue, then it would not show how widespread the gender pay gap is at the House of Mouse. It may also prevent other women from suing Disney for “stolen earnings” in the future.
However, Disney does not think that the women have a case and claims there is no gender wage gap at the company. Shawna M. Swanson, Associate General Counsel and head of the employment law function at Disney, shared the following brief statement:
“The plaintiffs’ assertions about an alleged pay gap between women and men are simply false, which we will demonstrate through the litigation.”
Ms. Rasmussen and Ms. Moore claim that the wage gap issues began in 2017. Before that, Disney determined starting pay based on prior salary levels, which made things more even. After 2017, the pay gap between men and women stood at around 2.5%. However, in some cases it is much more than that, with men at the company making over $137,000 and women in the same position making $75,000.
In the past, Disney has said that the wage gap lawsuits filed were each “highly individualized allegations” that did not represent the whole experience of women who worked at the company. Disney has also tried multiple times to get the lawsuit dismissed, but has failed each time.
If the judge were to allow the lawsuit to become a class action one, Disney could end up owing more than $150 million, which, in the state of California, could be doubled to more than $300 million. The judge could also decide to add on more in damages.
