Disney has agreed to pay US$43.3 million (A$67 million) to settle a lawsuit over equal pay in California.
It was alleged that that Disney female employees earned $230 million less a year than their male counterparts over eight years.
The lawsuit began in 2019 when LaRonda Rasmussen learned six men with the same job title earned substantially more than her. This included one man who had significantly less experience than her who earned over $30,000 a year more than her.
“I strongly commend Ms Rasmussen and the women who brought this discrimination suit against Disney, one of the largest entertainment companies in the world," one of Rasmussen’s lawyers, Lori Andrus, a partner at Andrus Anderson, said in a statement.
"They risked their careers to raise pay disparity at Disney.”
After Rasmussen stepped forward it created a ripple effect where 9,000 current and former employees of the entertainment company eventually joined the suit.
The case was then supported by an analysis of Disney’s human resources data from April 2015 to December 2022. This analysis found female Disney employees were paid roughly 2% more than their male coworkers.
While Disney paid out the female employees as part of the settlement, they did not admit fault as part of the settlement.
The company has long refuted the allegation that they paid female employees less than their counterparts. It asserted that the case conflated the experience of a small number of women to cause doubt in the company.
“We have always been committed to paying our employees fairly and have demonstrated that commitment throughout this case,” a Disney spokesperson said in a statement.
“We are pleased to have resolved this matter.”
Alongside setting up a fund for paid plaintiffs, Disney agreed to hire an "industrial/organisational psychologist" to oversee Disney executives' job organisation.
According to the settlement, Disney has also hired an external labour economist to perform a pay equity analysis of certain positions over three years.