It took courage for the three women to sue Goldman Sachs for discrimination.

And then it took 13 years for this class action case to be settled.

Goldman Sachs will pay $215 million. $71 million of which will be going to legal fees.

"The rest will be divided among the women — which comes to about $47,000 per person — involved in the suit, who all worked at the investment bank sometime in the last 21 years."

The bank discriminated against women when it came to pay, performance evaluations, and promotions.

If you think not doing a pay equity audit is okay, think about this case. It isn't just pay equity that you need to audit.

Employers need to do a workplace equity audit and look at:

(1) pay rates at the time of hire - This is the most important pay decision and difficult to get right.

(2) on-going pay decisions - The annual merit process and off-cycle pay changes should be reviewed with equity in mind. Are your bonuses discretionary? Add that to your list of potential discriminatory decisions.

(3) your performance evaluation processes - Most of us know that performance reviews are biased and dislike the annual review process.

(4) your promotion process - Are you posting every opportunity instead of shoulder tapping your go-to person without considering anyone else?

(5) your evaluation of potential - Is your succession planning process objective or biased?

(6) payouts at termination - If discretion is used in payouts like severance, you should be looking at this too for possible discrimination.

#payequity #compensation #rewards #humanresources #discrimination #classaction #legal

Click to read the article that inspired this post: https://to.pbs.org/3HQq1xG