Goldman Sachs agreed to pay $215 million in a sex discrimination lawsuit filed by a former female employee who claimed she was consistently underpaid and undervalued by her male colleagues.
The two sides agreed to a settlement and waived a trial scheduled for next month in New York federal court, the woman’s attorney confirmed. It is distributed to the department and the securities department.
About a third of the proceeds will go to plaintiffs’ attorneys’ fees, according to people familiar with the matter.
As part of the agreement, plaintiffs’ attorneys said: goldman sachs It also promised to hire independent experts to “conduct additional analysis on the performance evaluation process” at the bank and to conduct a “pay equity study.”
Initial plaintiffs, including former Goldman employees Christina Chen Oster and Shana Orrich, first sued Goldman in 2010 and won the right to sue. Class action lawsuit over sex discrimination 2018.
They accuse Goldman of company-wide policies and practices that have led to improved salaries and promotion prospects for male employees, and that the bank’s review process prevents managers, mostly men, from appreciating staff. It claimed to have allowed people to nominate those who contributed. shoulder system”.
One of the plaintiffs, Alison Gamba, said after the settlement, “My goal in this lawsuit has always been to support strong women on Wall Street.” We are proud to advance equality.”
Outten & Golden attorney Adam Klein, who represented the women, said the settlement “provides meaningful relief to our clients.”
Jacqueline Arthur, Goldman’s global head of human capital management, said the bank “is proud of its long track record of promoting and advancing women, and is committed to ensuring a diverse and inclusive workplace for all employees. We are still working on it,” he said.
The settlement, first reported by Bloomberg, ends a long-running lawsuit against Goldman that highlights the struggle on Wall Street to diversify the financial industry’s workforce.
Last year, Jamie Fiore Higgins, a former Goldman employee, said: published a memoir of her 17 years at the bank In it, she claimed she suffered bullying, discrimination, and manipulation.
Goldman Sachs chief executive David Solomon has spoken publicly about the bank’s attempt to diversify its workforce, announcing a set of hiring targets for 2019. 29% of selected employees A record high for women.
If the New York court overseeing the case approves the settlement, a third-party administrator will apportion the settlement money to class members “based on an objective formula,” according to plaintiffs’ attorneys.
