Two female Apple employees took legal action by filing a class-action lawsuit on Thursday.
They alleged that the company pays women lower salaries than men for similar work.
The lawsuit, filed in a San Francisco state court, focuses on Apple’s hiring methods for determining pay and its performance evaluation policies.
This legal action is part of a trend of pay equity lawsuits against prominent companies, including tech giants, alleging discriminatory pay practices against women and minorities.
The legal action also asserts that the performance assessments favor men over women, as criteria like teamwork and leadership tend to benefit men and penalize women.
This disparity can impact women’s opportunities for promotions and bonuses, according to the lawsuit.
Justina Jong, a customer and technical training instructor and one of the plaintiffs, mentioned in a statement from her legal team that she observed a male colleague’s W-2 left on the office printer.
“I noticed that he was being paid almost $10,000 more than me, even though we performed substantially similar work. This revelation made me feel terrible,” Jong said in a statement.
The legal action also claims that Jong had to endure a hostile work setting alongside a colleague who sexually harassed her.
The other plaintiff, Salgado, expressed that she raised concerns to Apple multiple times regarding the wage disparity.
Salgado, who has been with Apple in various positions since 2012, stated that Apple eventually enlisted a third-party company to investigate, revealing that she was indeed paid less.
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