$43.25M Disney Settlement Aims to Resolve Lawsuit Over Alleged Gender Pay Discrimination

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A $43.25 million settlement has been reached to resolve a proposed class action lawsuit that alleged the Walt Disney Company and several affiliates violated California’s Equal Pay Act (EPA) and state labor laws by paying female employees in certain positions less than men for comparable work.

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The plaintiffs reached an agreement with the entertainment giant, and submitted a motion and memo detailing the terms of the proposed deal, on November 26, 2024 after more than five years of litigation against Disney. The parties now await preliminary approval of the settlement terms from the court.

The proposed class action settlement, if preliminarily approved, will cover any women who have been or will be employed by a Disney-related company in California between April 1, 2015 and December 28, 2024 below the level of vice president and in a salaried, full-time, non-union position with a job level of B1 through B4, T1 through T4, TL, P1 through P6, P2L through P5L, M1 through M3, A1 through A5, E0, E1 or E1X assigned to a full job family that is not “other.”

The deal does not include those working in Hulu, ESPN, Pixar, 21st Century (Fox), FX, National Geographic, Bamtech or ILM positions, or employees in the Human Resources compensation job family, the settlement agreement notes.

The proposed class is estimated to include more than 14,000 people, the plaintiffs’ memo says.

ClassAction.org will update this page if and when the official settlement website is launched.

Class members do not have to do anything to be eligible to receive a share of the $43,250,000 settlement fund, the agreement relays.

Per the document, each class member may be entitled to receive a minimum $200 cash payout, plus an additional payment to be calculated by a labor economist retained by the plaintiffs.

According to the agreement, $250,000 of the total fund will be allocated to resolve claims brought under the Private Attorneys General Act, with 75 percent going to the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency, and the remaining 25 percent divided equally among certain eligible employees on top of the other cash benefit.

Moreover, as part of the deal, the companies have agreed to hire an industrial and organizational psychologist to provide training to compensation personnel involved in organizing positions within Disney’s job architecture, the settlement agreement states.

Disney will also retain for the next three years an outside labor economist who will analyze the annual base pay of full-time, non-union employees in California to “identify whether any potential statistically significant pay differences exist,” the document shares.

“If the labor economist identifies a statistically significant pay difference, [Disney] will take appropriate steps to address the pay differential,” the agreement adds.

Notice of the deal with Disney will be sent by mail or email to eligible class members should the settlement receive preliminary approval from the court, the document says. More information about the Disney class action settlement will be available if and when the official website—RasmussenVTWDCSettlement.com—is launched.

Did you know that some class action settlements require no proof to submit a claim? Check out the latest open class action settlements.