Apple unequal-pay lawsuit given green light to proceed from judge – NBC Bay Area

A lawsuit filed against Tech Giant Apple, claiming the company has, for years, paid women less than women for doing the same job, has been boosted by a judge.

The lawsuit started when a female employee said she found out her male counterpart was making more than her for the same job based on something she saw on an office printer.

“We were doing the same work, we were on the same team, we received the same performance review,” said Zee Bori, a former Apple employee.

Bori claims she was paid less than a male she brought in as her co-worker.

The suit is also looking to reach class-action status.

Another plaintiff claims she discovered the wage discrepancy in the office.

“One of her fellow employees had been copying his [W-2 form] and left it on the copy machine,” said Jim Finberg, a partner at Althsuler Berzon LLP. “She inadvertently glanced at it and saw that even though they were in the same job position and level, he was making ten thousand dollars more.”

Cases like the one brought against Apple are not uncommon in Silicon Valley.

In 2022, Google settled a gender-based pay discrimination suit for $118 million. Separately, HP settled a class action wage lawsuit for $8.5 million.

Apple, worth more than $3 trillion in the stock market, told NBC Bay Area that since 2017, it has “achieved and maintained gender pay equity and, every year, they partner with an independent third-party expert to examine each team member’s total compensation and make adjustments where necessary to ensure pay equity.”

Bori said it’s just not true based on her experience.

“It’s in the back of your mind, but it’s still a shock when you discover it and realize that we’re doing the exact same thing, and I’m not being valued as much for no other reason than we’re two different genders,” she said.

Some years back, Salesforce did an internal audit and found women at the company were being paid less than men for the same jobs. The Tech Giant set aside $3 million to make up the difference.