Female employees at Apple claim pay discrimination.
Were you impacted?

closeup of a young caucasian woman in the street showing a piece of paper with a symbol for gender equality drawn in it

Share your experience:

Have you worked in Apple’s engineering, marketing, or AppleCare divisions in California?
Were you asked about your salary history or expectations during your interview?
If so, we’d like to speak with you.

Case Background

On June 13, 2024, plaintiff-side powerhouses Altshuler Berzon, Cohen Milstein, and Outten & Golden filed a class action lawsuit against Apple Inc. in San Francisco Superior Court. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of two female employees, claims Apple violated California’s Equal Pay Act and Fair Employment and Housing Act by systematically paying women lower wages than male employees who perform substantially similar work. The women claim that Apple started this discriminatory behavior when they interviewed for their jobs. They say that Apple asked them about their salary history or salary expectations and that Apple’s use of prior compensation or salary expectations to set starting compensation for its employees perpetuated historical pay disparities between men and women and resulted in men receiving higher starting salaries than women performing substantially similar work.

Did this happen to you? If so, we want to hear from you. You may qualify to join our class action lawsuit.

More than 12,000 women in Apple’s engineering, marketing, and AppleCare divisions in California have potentially been impacted.

Case Background

Apple discriminated against female employees by paying them less than their male counterparts.

Before the fall of 2017, Apple asked job candidates for prior pay information and, when that practice became unlawful in California in January 2018, Apple continued to inquire about prior pay under the guise of candidates’ pay expectations.

Apple used this illegally obtained information to set starting salaries, resulting in lower pay rates for women.
Pay expectations are highly correlated with prior pay. In fact, studies show that people who are asked this question generally give a number slightly higher than the pay at their current or last job.
This practice can perpetuate existing pay disparities between men and women, and frequently leads to women being paid less than men for the same type of work. We believe these practices have affected more than 12,000 women at Apple in California, and we stand ready to fight for their rights.

Apple perpetuated the gender pay disparity through performance evaluations.

This lawsuit also alleges that Apple’s performance evaluation system is biased, because women are penalized in categories such as teamwork and leadership, while men are rewarded for the same behaviors.
This practice is biased against women and has a disparate impact on women at Apple, causing them to be paid less than men with similar skills, experience, responsibility, and performance.
Because performance evaluation scores have a relationship to bonuses, Restricted Stock Units (RSUs), and pay increases at Apple, Apple’s biased performance evaluation system has a disparate impact on women.