Apple must face a potential class action alleging that Apple had a policy of paying men higher salaries than women for similar work, reports ars technica.
On Tuesday, California Superior Court Judge Ethan P. Schulman filed an order that largely denies Apple’s motions to strike the class allegations and suspend several class claims. The tech giant tried and failed to argue that pay disparities for individual female workers suing were “justified” and that their circumstances were not common to the 12,000 female employees who could be owed backpay if the class action is certified and Apple loses.
Here’s some background: in April 2018 Carney Shegerian, trial lawyer and founder of the Los Angeles-based employment discrimination firm Shegerian & Associates, announced a class action lawsuit against Apple, alleging that the tech giant violates the California Equal Pay Act and the Fair Employment and Housing Act by paying women less than it pays men for equal or similar work.
In June 2011, Shegerian & Associates client Camille Wade began working for Apple as a specialist at the Apple Store in Los Angeles, California, and was promoted to the position of “Expert.” From then until January 2017, Wade was a full-time employee, at which point she inquired about moving to a part-time Expert position due to family matters. According to Shegerian, her supervisor expressed two part-time Expert openings, and assured Wade that male Experts who switched from full-time to part-time were able to maintain their current pay rate.
In March 2017, Wade was offered a part-time Expert position; however unlike male employees, her hourly rate was decreased by $2 per hour from her full-time hourly rate, claims Sherigan. She accepted the position working at the reduced rate performing the same or similar work to her male Expert counterparts until December 2017.
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