https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/06/apple-deliberately-pays-women-less-than-men-lawsuit-says/

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"No-win situation" --

Apple punishes women for same behaviors that get men promoted,
lawsuit says

Apple could owe thousands in back pay to 12,000 female employees.

Ashley Belanger - Jun 14, 2024 5:37 pm UTC

Apple punishes women for same behaviors that get men promoted,
lawsuit says
Enlarge
Marcos del Mazo / Contributor | LightRocket

reader comments

229

Apple has spent years "intentionally, knowingly, and deliberately
paying women less than men for substantially similar work," a
proposed class action lawsuit filed in California on Thursday
alleged.

A victory for women suing could mean that more than 12,000 current
and former female employees in California could collectively claw
back potentially millions in lost wages from an apparently
ever-widening wage gap allegedly perpetuated by Apple policies.

The lawsuit was filed by two employees who have each been with Apple
for more than a decade, Justina Jong and Amina Salgado. They claimed
that Apple violated California employment laws between 2020 and 2024
by unfairly discriminating against California-based female employees
in Apple's engineering, marketing, and AppleCare divisions and
"systematically" paying women "lower compensation than men with
similar education and experience."

Apple allegedly has displayed an ongoing bias toward male employees,
offering them higher starting salaries and promoting them for the
"same behaviors" that female employees allegedly were punished for.

Jong, currently a customer/technical training instructor on Apple's
global developer relations/app review team, said that she only became
aware of a stark pay disparity by chance.

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"One day, I saw a W-2 left on the office printer," Jong said. "It
belonged to my male colleague, who has the same job position. I
noticed that he was being paid almost $10,000 more than me, even
though we performed substantially similar work. This revelation made
me feel terrible."

But Salgado had long been aware of the problem. Salgado, currently on
a temporary assignment as a development manager in the AppleCare
division, spent years complaining about her lower wages, prompting
Apple internal investigations that never led to salary increases.

Finally, late last year, Salgado's insistence on fair pay was
resolved after Apple hired a third-party firm that concluded she was
"paid less than men performing substantially similar work." Apple
subsequently increased her pay rate but dodged responsibility for
back pay that Salgado now seeks to recover.

Eve Cervantez, a lawyer for women suing, said in a press release
shared with Ars that these women were put in "a no-win situation."

"Once women are hired into a lower pay range at Apple, subsequent pay
raises or any bonuses are tracked accordingly, meaning they don't
correct the gender pay gap," Cervantez said. "Instead, they
perpetuate and widen the gap because raises and bonuses are based on
a percentage of the employee's base salary."

Apple did not immediately respond to Ars' request to comment.

Page: 1 2 Next -

reader comments

229
 
Ashley Belanger Ashley is a senior policy reporter for Ars Technica,
dedicated to tracking social impacts of emerging policies and new
technologies. She is a Chicago-based journalist with 20 years of
experience.
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