Apple on Thursday was hit with a proposed class motion accusing the tech giant of paying greater than 12,000 female employees in California lower than men with comparable jobs.
The lawsuit filed in state court in San Francisco by two women who’ve worked at Apple for greater than a decade claims the corporate systematically underpays female employees in its engineering, marketing, and AppleCare divisions.
Apple bases employees’ starting pay on their salaries at previous jobs or on their “pay expectations,” which leads to lower pay rates for girls, in line with the grievance. The lawsuit also claims that Apple’s performance evaluation system, which it uses to set raises and bonuses, is biased against women.
Cupertino, California-based Apple in a press release said it’s committed to inclusion and pay equity.
“Since 2017, Apple has achieved and maintained gender pay equity and each yr we partner with an independent third-party expert to look at each team member’s total compensation and make adjustments, where needed, to make sure that we maintain pay equity,” the corporate said.
Eve Cervantez, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said Apple’s practices perpetuate and widen existing gender pay gaps.
“This can be a no-win situation for female employees at Apple,” Cervantez said in a press release.
The plaintiffs are represented by class motion law firms Outten & Golden, Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll and Altshuler Berzon. The firms have brokered massive settlements in other sex bias cases, including a $215 million deal with Goldman Sachs last yr and a $175 million settlement with Sterling Jewelers in 2022. Those corporations denied wrongdoing.
California has since 2018 prohibited employers from asking job applicants about their salary history with the goal of eliminating pay gaps based on sex and race.
In accordance with Thursday’s lawsuit, Apple as an alternative relies on applicants’ pay expectations to set their salaries. But because most employees provide a figure that’s barely higher than what they earned at their last job, the practice has the identical effect of perpetuating wage disparities, the lawsuit says.
Apple also rewards employees who’re deemed to have “talent” by paying them more but disproportionately grants that designation to men, the plaintiffs claim.
The lawsuit accuses Apple of violating California’s Equal Pay Act, which bars sex discrimination in pay, and state laws prohibiting workplace sex bias and unfair business practices.
One in all the plaintiffs, Justina Jong, also claims that Apple refused to transfer her to a special team after she complained about sexual harassment by a coworker. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and penalties.
