Walt Disney sued over alleged gender pay gap

The Walt Disney Company systematically underpays women, according to a new class-action lawsuit that alleges “widespread” discrimination at one of the world’s largest media corporations.

The attorneys taking on Disney, with a complaint filed in California on Tuesday, said the company has routinely paid women less than men for the same work, describing the problem as an “egregious gender pay gap that appears to be engrained in Disney’s culture”.

The complaint, filed on behalf of LaRonda Rasmussen and Karen Moore, asks for back pay, lost benefits and other compensation, reports deadline.com.

The 21-page lawsuit, filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court, also names Walt Disney Pictures and Hollywood Records as defendants.

The suit has hit Disney just as the company has completed its $71bn (£54bn) acquisition of 21st Century Fox. The case, filed on behalf of all women who work at the Walt Disney Studios branch of the company in California, also came just days after the corporation reported that in the UK, it has paid men 22% more on average than women.

The suit also demands that Disney create internal programmes that will "remedy the effects of Disney's past and present unlawful employment policies".

That includes adjusting salaries and benefits for other women and creating a task force that compiles reports on progress. The attorneys also requested that the case be certified as a class action.

Disney said in a statement, “The lawsuit is without merit and we will defend against it vigorously.”

It said that "the lawsuit's uninformed generalized allegations about Disney's policies and practices are baseless. Disney maintains robust pay equity practices and policies. Even before California's Fair Pay Act, Disney created a specialized team of compensation professionals and lawyers to analyze and address the company's pay equity practices".

Plaintiff Rasmussen worked at Disney for 11 years, most recently as a product development manager at Walt Disney Studios, according to the legal papers. Moore worked at Disney for more than 20 years, serving as a senior copyright administrator at the studio's music label.