Lawsuit claims Apple is systemically underpaying female employees

In a new lawsuit filed in California this week, two Apple recruits accuse the company of discriminatory pay practices — specifically offering lower pay and few paths to higher salaries for thousands of current and former female employees.

The lawsuit documents a pre-2017 system of hiring policies that aligned base salaries with rates from previous job positions, rather than in-house minimums, and thus violates state labor laws. The lawsuit covers nearly 12,000 female employees across various departments at Apple, and hinges upon California equal pay, employment, and unfair business practice laws — the latter of which is limited to a four year period.

"Pay expectations are highly correlated with prior pay; studies show that persons asked for pay expectations generally provide a number slightly higher than the pay at their current or last job," the complaint reads. "Apple’s policy or practice of collecting information about pay expectations and using that information to set starting salary has had the effect of perpetuating past pay disparities and paying women less than men performing substantially similar work."

It also accuses Apple of discriminatory review practices that single out employees with undetermined "talent" and that use biased criteria for performance, the Wall Street Journal reports. All of which end up "punishing" female employees.

"Apple’s performance evaluation system is biased against women because for scored categories such as teamwork and leadership, men are rewarded and women are penalized for the same behaviors. 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," the plaintiffs allege.

An Apple spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal that the company "has achieved and maintained gender pay equity since 2017," and that it now uses an independent third-party expert to evaluate and adjust compensation.

Major names in tech are attempting to dodge the keen eyes of observers who are increasingly more confident in calling out discriminatory and harmful "company cultures." Most recently, both SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman have been accused of facilitating dangerously "toxic" work environments. In Musk's case, that is alleged to include inappropriate behavior with employees.