After decades of discrimination, it’s time to pay the bills. Eighteen years of litigation he attributed Goldman Sachs actions to systematically punish women and their role in the company, New York Bank signs check for $215 million to settle the matter and move on. The American giant, accused of paying all its employees less, found itself in front of 2,800 women who complained that their male colleagues were being treated unfairly, especially with regard to wages. A month before the start of a trial that would draw attention to widespread testimony about the gender pay gap, the bank agreed to an amount that only partially compensates the victims. A third of the amount will actually go to legal costs. The decision remains equally successful for those who fought for the rights of these workers.
The first to report gender pay gap in July 2005, Christina Chen-Oster was at the bank. After graduating from MIT in 1997, she was hired by a bank to work with convertible bonds. Seven years later, he filed an initial appeal with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, filing a lawsuit in 2010 and then filing a class action lawsuit in 2018 for “sex discrimination.” Over the years word of mouth spread and the number of complaints grew to such an extent that statements were taken from 2,800 workers who decided to appeal against the financial giant. The plaintiffs, former employees of a Wall Street bank, accused Goldman Sachs of systematically paying women less than men and giving women lower ratings to hinder their career advancement.
“My goal in this story has always been to support the brave women of Wall Street,” she commented. Financial Times Allison Gamba, who took part in the class action lawsuit. Adam Klein, the women’s lawyer for Outten & Golden, was also commended, convinced that media coverage of the case would help shed light on similar cases of discrimination in the financial world and “promote gender equality.” In addition to financial compensation, the agreement stipulates that Goldman Sachs will hire a panel of independent experts to conduct further analysis of the performance appraisal and the gender pay gap, which the European Parliament recently intervened with stricter legislation.
“The latest data shows that there is still a lot of work to be done,” the financial institution’s website says, citing Closing the Gender Gap: Advancing Women in Corporate America, published in October 2018. “Data continues to point to a lack of women in leadership roles as a likely driver of the gender pay gap. While disclosure remains limited, the latest US S&P 1500 numbers show that while women make up roughly 40% of all employees, they only make up 5% of CEOs. and 21% of directors. Link is made in the report a fixed 20% gender pay gap and underrepresentation of women in leadership positions and on corporate boards of directors. “This means that the gender gap is unlikely to narrow without the broad participation and active participation of men and women,” the document says. Financial compensation is then welcome, but let’s not stop there. We need a cultural change that can only happen if men and women work in the same direction.
Source: Elle