A new lawsuit has accused tech giant Apple of “systematically” underpaying women workers in similar jobs as men in California. The class-action suit was filed Thursday in a state court in San Francisco, United States (US).
The complaint, initiated by two women who have been working at Apple for more than 10 years, claims the company pays over 12,000 women less than men in its marketing, engineering, and AppleCare divisions. Apple decides starting salaries for women based on their previous pay or “pay expectations”. This leads to lower pay framework for women at the company, the lawsuit states, adding that Apple’s performance evaluation system is biased against women.
In response to the lawsuit, the Apple unit based in California, claimed that the company is dedicated to promoting inclusion and ensuring pay equity. “Since 2017, Apple has achieved and maintained gender pay equity and every year we partner with an independent third-party expert to examine each team member’s total compensation and make adjustments, where necessary, to ensure that we maintain pay equity,” Apple stated, according to a report by Reuters.
The state of California, under the Equal Pay Act, prohibits companies from asking potential employees about salaries at their previous workplaces to bridge the pay gap perpetuated on the basis of one’s race and gender. The lawsuit alleges that Apple pays more to workers the company deems talented as reward, but men are disproportionately granted this designation.
In 2018, Apple itself revealed that women at its units in the United Kingdom (UK) are paid 5 per cent than men due to their senior positions. The disclosure arrived after a British law obligated companies to publish information about wages. However, the company added that when it considered median pay instead of average, women were found to be earning 2 per cent higher than men.
Eve Cervantez, one of the lawyers for the complainants, says the business practices at Apple perpetuate and broaden the existing gender pay gaps. “This is a no-win situation for female employees at Apple.”
