Key Points:
- Apple is accused of systematically underpaying over 12,000 female employees compared to their male counterparts.
- The lawsuit claims Apple’s salary and performance evaluation systems disadvantage women.
- Apple insists it has ensured equal pay since 2017, despite ongoing allegations of gender pay gaps.
Apple is currently facing a class action lawsuit, accused of systematically underpaying its female employees in California. The legal action, initiated by two longtime female employees, alleges that over 12,000 women in the company’s engineering, marketing, and AppleCare departments receive less compensation than their male counterparts.
According to the lawsuit, Apple’s pay practices are influenced by the previous salaries or pay expectations of employees. This method, the women say, ends up giving women lower starting salaries. They also claim that Apple’s system for evaluating performance and deciding raises and bonuses is unfair to women.
In response to these allegations, Apple maintains that it is committed to ensuring fairness and equal pay, a standard it claims to have upheld since 2017. Nevertheless, the plaintiffs argue that the company’s current practices still result in significant pay disparities between men and women.
The legal team representing the women includes attorneys with extensive experience in class action lawsuits, who have secured substantial settlements in similar cases. Eve Cervantez, one of the lawyers, emphasized that Apple’s practices exacerbate gender pay gaps.
It’s noteworthy that since 2018, California law has prohibited employers from inquiring about job applicants’ previous salaries, a measure designed to combat pay disparities based on gender and race.
