Turns Out, Woke Disney Isn’t Enough to Avoid a $43M Equal-Pay Lawsuit...

Well it looks like Disney, the same company that built its empire on magic castles, talking animals, and enough princesses to stock a royal army, has agreed to pay $43.25 million to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging it underpaid women for nearly a decade. Turns out, behind the fairy-tale gloss, the Mouse House was dealing with some decidedly un-magical wage gaps.

(Source: Giphy) 

The lawsuit, which started back in 2019, was led by LaRonda Rasmussen, a Disney financial analyst who discovered six male colleagues with the same job title were making significantly more than she was. One of them, who had less experience, was reportedly earning $20,000 more per year. When she complained, Disney gave her a $25,000 raise—but, shockingly, she was still behind her male coworkers. 

(Source: CNN) 

While Disney denied any wrongdoing, it decided to avoid the PR nightmare of a jury trial and settled. The deal will cover about 9,000 women who worked for Disney in California since April 2015. These aren’t just park employees in Mickey Mouse costumes—it includes non-union, salaried workers from Marvel, Lucasfilm, ABC, and Disney’s cruise business. Meaning, sorry, Pixar and ESPN staffers, you’re on your own.

So, what does this settlement actually mean? If a California judge approves it, Disney will be writing checks to thousands of women in the class. Plaintiffs’ lawyers will also pocket up to $14.4 million in legal fees, plus another $1.8 million in expenses. (Because even in lawsuits, lawyers always win.)

(Source: Giphy) 

Disney has also agreed to implement new pay equity policies. These include hiring an outside consultant to train employees on how to benchmark salaries fairly and bringing in a labor economist to analyze its pay practices for the next three years. It’s basically Disney’s corporate version of a “happily ever after” clause.

What’s more is that the core of the lawsuit was Disney’s alleged reliance on sketchy policies, like basing new hires’ salaries on their previous pay—policies that tend to perpetuate existing gender disparities. A study commissioned by the plaintiffs found that Disney women were paid, on average, 2% less than their male counterparts in one category and 0.58% less in another. That might not sound like much, but at Disney’s scale, those percentages add up to serious coin.

(Source: Reuters) 

For its part, Disney pushed back, citing a 2022 internal review that found women at the company earned 99.4% of what men earned. They also argued that it’s impossible to compare skills and experience across an organization as sprawling as theirs. But assuming  the court greenlights the deal, women in the class will be notified and can either opt out, object, or do absolutely nothing and still get a check. No strings attached.

For Disney, shelling out $43 million is essentially a rounding error on its balance sheet. The settlement lets the company avoid a messy public trial that could have dented its family-friendly image. After all, “The Happiest Place on Earth” doesn’t really vibe with “Systemic Wage Discrimination.”

(Source: Giphy) 

As for the plaintiffs, their attorney praised the women who came forward, noting they “risked their careers to call out pay disparities at Disney.” While the settlement won’t erase years of underpayment, it’s at least a step toward better pay practices going forward. The takeaway though? Simply put, even at Woke Disney, pay equity doesn’t arrive on a pumpkin-turned-carriage. Sometimes it takes spreadsheets, lawsuits, and a whole lot of courtroom drama to make the magic happen.

At the time of this writing Disney is up 1.39% on the day (and up 29.07% YTD). 

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Stocks.News holds positions in Disney as mentioned in the article.