Apple sued by employees alleging pay discrimination

AApple Inc. has been sued by two female employees who say it “systematically” pays women less than their male counterparts for similar work and who seek to represent thousands of other women who face the same alleged discrimination.

They claim that Cupertino, California-based Apple determined starting salaries before 2018 by asking employees about their pay history and that this practice “perpetuated historic pay gaps between men and women.”

Then, when California banned the practice, the iPhone maker began demanding salary expectations, cementing the disparity, the women say.

“Apple’s policy and practice of collecting this information about salary expectations and using this information to set starting salaries has had a disparate impact on women, and the fact that Apple does not pay women and men equal wages for performing work substantially similar is simply not justified by law. ,” Joe Sellers, an attorney with Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC who represents the employees, said in a statement.

Glimpse of a W-2

The two employees, Justina Jong and Amina Salgado, also claim that in performance reviews, men at Apple often score higher in teamwork and leadership, resulting in lower bonuses and salaries for women.

Jong realized he was being paid about $10,000 less than a male colleague only after seeing the W-2 form on the office printer, according to the statement.

An Apple representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit, filed Thursday in California state court.

Lawsuits alleging pay discrimination against women in the tech industry sometimes end in substantial settlements that, however, can result in a paycheck or two per person. The lawyers who filed the lawsuit Thursday include those who have filed similar claims against Oracle Corp. and Google and won average payouts per person of $3,750 and $5,500, respectively, after legal fees.

12,000 employees

Jong and Salgado filed the lawsuit on behalf of more than 12,000 current and former employees of Apple’s engineering, marketing and AppleCare divisions in California. Both have worked at Apple for more than a decade, according to the complaint.

Salgado complained to Apple about the pay gap “several times,” but despite conducting its own investigation, Apple did not increase her pay until a third-party investigation concluded that there was a pay gap between her and her male colleagues, according to the complaint. She received no back payments, according to her lawyers.

Jong and Salgado are asking for unspecified wages they say they are owed.

The lawsuit was previously reported by the Wall Street Journal.

The case is Jong v. Apple, Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco.