Disney To Pay Out $43M In Pay Equity Class Action Deal; Mouse House To Bring Outside Consultants On Board To Check Practices

Now we know how much Disney is writing a check for to end the pay equity class action suit that has loomed over the company for over five years.

Set to address the up to 14,000 eligible class members of Mouse House female employees past and present from 2015 to today, the Bob Iger-run fun palace will be paying $43.25 million, according to papers filed in the LA Superior Court docket this afternoon.

Far less than the $300 million it was estimated the case could balloon to once if was certified as a class action last December, the official compensation comes a couple of weeks after news broke of a quietly reached October settlement between Disney and the Lori Andrus represented plaintiffs. The whole matter was set to go to trial in May 2025.

“We have always been committed to paying our employees fairly and have demonstrated that commitment throughout this case, and we are pleased to have resolved this matter,” a Disney spokesperson told Deadline today after the settlement sum was made public.

Having said that, the company is also bringing in outside consultant to help foster better practices in terms of pay equality, I hear. Also, Disney will further its cooperation for another three years with external economists on the matter of compensation equity.  

All of which is nice, but the bacon really gets friend up on January 10, 2025 in a downtown hearing before Judge Elihu M. Berle to get judicial approval for the settlement.  While never a sure thing and open to degrees of objection, that session in six weeks will more than likely be the end of this case.

First filed in April 2019 over back pay, lost benefits and more by Disney staffers LaRonda Rasmussen and Karen Moore and heading towards a May 2025 trial, the suit accused the Magic Kingdom of not being so kind with its cash based on gender as opposed to performance. At its core, the suit claimed Disney has violated the Fair Employment & Housing Act and California’s Equal Pay Act in paying men more than women for the same work.

Seeking at least $150 million in lost wages initially, the suit saw repeated big push back from Disney over the year in efforts to have it dismissed and not certified. Exclaiming the whole thing was merely “highly individualized allegations,” Disney’s Paul Hasting LLP team sought to limit the matter to a small contingent of less than 10 women. There was also drama over documents and discovery, with the plaintiffs calling out the Mouse House as dragging their feet with data and paperwork.

Now it’s a very different type of paperwork everyone is waiting on from the judge after Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s.

Worth noting:  The class action and any payout does not include women employed at Hulu, ESPN, Pixar and previously Fox assets like FX or National Geographic.