Daniel Wiessner
(Reuters) – Apple was hit with a class-action lawsuit on Thursday accusing the tech giant of paying more than 12,000 female employees in California less than men in comparable jobs.
The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco state court by two women who worked at Apple (NASDAQ:) for more than a decade, alleges that the company systematically underpays women in its engineering, marketing and AppleCare divisions.
According to the complaint, Apple bases workers’ starting salaries on their salaries at previous jobs or on their “wage expectations,” resulting in lower pay rates for women. The lawsuit also alleges that Apple’s performance evaluation system, which the company uses to award raises and bonuses, is biased against women.
Cupertino, California-based Apple said in a statement that it is committed to inclusion and pay equity.
“Since 2017, Apple has achieved and maintained gender pay equity, and each year we work with an independent third-party expert to review each team member’s total pay and make adjustments where necessary to ensure pay equity continues,” the company stated. .
Eva Cervantes, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said Apple’s practices perpetuate and widen existing gender pay gaps.
“This is a win-win situation for female Apple employees,” Cervantes said in a statement.
The plaintiffs are represented by the law firms Outten & Golden, Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll and Altshuler Berzon. The firms have brokered large settlements in other gender bias cases, including a $215 million deal with Goldman Sachs last year and a $175 million settlement with Sterling Jewelers in 2022. These companies deny wrongdoing.
California has banned employers from asking job applicants about their salary history since 2018, in an effort to eliminate pay gaps based on gender and race.
Apple instead relies on applicants’ salary expectations to determine their salaries, according to the lawsuit filed Thursday. But since most workers list an amount that is slightly higher than what they earned in their last job, the practice has the same effect of perpetuating wage inequality, the lawsuit says.
Apple also rewards employees considered “talented” by paying them more, but disproportionately assigns that title to men, the plaintiffs claim.
The suit accuses Apple of violating California’s Equal Pay Act, which prohibits gender pay discrimination, as well as state laws prohibiting gender bias in the workplace and unfair business practices.
One of the plaintiffs, Justina Jeong, also claims that Apple refused to transfer her to another team after she complained of sexual harassment from a co-worker. The lawsuit seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.