The class action mentions that over 12,000 female employees from California are paid less than the opposite sex for jobs that do have similar obligations.
This lawsuit was filed by two former employees from Apple, who have been working for the tech giant for over ten years. The complaint is filed under the jurisdiction of the court from San Francisco and alleges that women working for the company are paid less than male workers from the same departments. Some of the departments where the underpaying happens are marketing, engineering, and the AppleCare division.
Even more so, the complaint mentions that Apple creates the salary of the employees based on their expectations and previous salaries, which allegedly for women are smaller than for the opposite sex. The accusation also mentions that the performance evaluation is also built on biased terms against women.
Apple responded, “Since 2017, Apple has achieved and maintained gender pay equity and every year we partner with an independent third-party expert to examine each team member’s total compensation and make adjustments, where necessary, to ensure that we maintain pay equity”.
However, Eve Cervantez, a plaintiff's lawyer, reported that the practices the tech company sustains are just making the gender gap only worse: “This is a no-win situation for female employees at Apple”. Those plaintiffs are represented by firms such as Outten&Golden, Cohen Milstein Sellers&Tolls, and Altshuler Berzon. Those class-action companies have fulfilled massive breakthroughs in the gender wage gap. Last year, a $215 million deal was obtained with Goldman Sachs, and a $175 million settlement was reached with Sterling Jewelers in 2022.
It is also worth mentioning that California has prohibited employers from asking potential employees for their payment history in hopes that the wage gap will be diminished. So, when Apple asks for their financial expectation, usually the response is higher than what they have earned previously, the wage difference being perpetuated.
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