Apple sued by female employees: ‘Company pays women less, men given more bonuses’

The female employees said that during performance reviews, Apple gives higher scores to men which results in lower bonuses and pay for the women.

Apple was sued by two female employees- Justina Jong and Amina Salgado- who claimed that the company “systemically” pays women less than their male counterparts for the same job and role. The women claimed that Apple determined starting salaries by asking employees for their compensation history and this practice “perpetuated historic pay disparities between men and women.”

Apple logo is seen in this illustration. Apple was sued by two female employees who claimed discrimination in pay and bonuses. (Reuters)

A lawyer representing the employees said, “Apple’s policy and practice of collecting such information about pay expectations and using that information to set starting salaries has had a disparate impact on women, and Apple’s failure to pay women and men equal wages for performing substantially similar work is simply not justified under the law."

The women also said that during performance reviews, Apple gives higher scores to men which results in lower bonuses and pay for the women.

The lawsuit has been filed the suit on behalf of more than 12,000 current and former female employees in Apple’s engineering, marketing and AppleCare divisions in California. Both of the women have both worked at Apple for more than a decade, as per the complaint.

Earlier the women also complained to the company about the pay disparity a “number of times”. At the time, Apple conducted its own investigation but said that it could not raise their salary until a third-party probe concluded there was a pay gap.