Apple employees are suing, claiming that female employees are “systematically” paid less than men

Apple “systematically” underpays women compared to their male colleagues, according to a potential class action lawsuit filed by a pair of employees.

The lawsuit filed Thursday in state court in San Francisco argues that the tech giant’s hiring practices and performance evaluation system result in women being paid less than men for the same work.

The lawsuit alleges that more than 12,000 current and former Apple employees could be included in the lawsuit if confirmed.

One of the plaintiffs, Justina Jong, said she was motivated to join the lawsuit when she found a W2 tax form belonging to a co-worker on her printer and learned that he was paid significantly more for similar work.

“I noticed that he was making almost $10,000 more than me, even though we did essentially similar work. This discovery made me feel terrible,” Jong said in a statement.

The lawsuit alleges that the discrepancies begin in the hiring process.

Before 2018, the company allegedly asked potential employees about their previous salaries to determine their salary levels. In compliance with state laws prohibiting such a practice, Apple began asking applicants to provide salary expectations as a benchmark.

According to the lawsuit, both systems provide women with lower wages.

“If you actually pay women less, you can’t defend that by saying they were willing to accept less money,” said James Finberg, one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers. Wall Street Journal.

Apple claims to have achieved pay equity since 2017.

Independent contacted the company for comment.

The lawsuit also alleged that the company’s performance evaluation system is biased and gives men inflated scores on subjective criteria such as teamwork and leadership.

In 2022, Apple employees said Financial Times. were victims of sexual exploitation and abuse, which was met with an apathetic response from the company’s HR department. (In response to the investigation, the company said at the time that it thoroughly investigates all allegations of misconduct and strives to create “an environment in which employees feel comfortable reporting any concerns.”)

A year earlier, employees had launched the #AppleToo campaign to raise awareness of what they believed constituted discrimination, racism and sexism at the company, modeling their efforts on the broader #MeToo movement and its emphasis on exposing gender-based violence in various settings.

Apple isn’t the first major tech company to be hit with such a lawsuit.

In 2022, Google paid $118 million to settle a class action lawsuit accusing it of pay discrimination against female employees.

This year, Oracle paid $25 million to settle an equal pay dispute on its own.