Two female employees, Justina Jong and Amina Salgado, sued Apple, claiming that the business “systemically” underpays women for equivalent jobs and roles. The ladies argued that Apple “perpetuated historic pay disparities between men and women” because the company asked employees about their past salaries when determining starting salaries.
A lawyer stated for the employees, “Women have been disproportionately affected by Apple’s policy and practice of gathering information about pay expectations and using that information to set starting salaries. It is legally unsustainable for Apple to fail to provide equal compensation to men and women for substantially similar work.”
Lawyers who is specialised in class action lawsuits and have achieved sizable settlements in comparable instances are defending the women suing Apple. One of their lawyers, Eve Cervantez, thinks that Apple’s policies exacerbate female wage disparities.
The women claimed that Apple lowers the incentives and salary for women when it gives men better scores during performance reviews.
In California, the complaint was brought on behalf of over 12,000 female employees who worked in Apple’s engineering, marketing, and AppleCare divisions. According to the complaint, both of the women have been employed by Apple for more than ten years.
The women had already expressed their concerns about the pay gap to the company a “number of times.” Apple checked into the matter on its own at the time but stated that it could not increase employee compensation until a third-party inquiry determined that there was a pay disparity.
Employers are not permitted to inquire about a job applicant’s prior salary since California passed legislation in 2018. Preventing salary disparities based on race and gender is the goal of this law.
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