Investment Bank Goldman Sachs Settles Case About Underpaid Women for $ 215 Million
US investment bank Goldman Sachs has agreed to pay $215 million to end a long-running lawsuit. In that case, the bank was accused of systematically underpaying women.
The New York-based bank closed the deal with the lawyers of the approximately 2,800 female employees who filed the lawsuit.
According to a joint statement from the bank and lawyers, Goldman Sachs will engage an independent expert for three years. He will analyze the appraisal processes of employees and promotion opportunities at the bank.
The Bloomberg news agency reported last week that the two parties were working hard to reach a settlement to avoid a trial scheduled for next month. The case was also closely watched in the banking sector, where women have long complained about unfair and unequal treatment in the workplace.
The Goldman case was first brought by Cristina Chen-Oster, who joined the investment bank as a bond trader after graduating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1997. In July 2005, she filed a discrimination complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a federal agency that acts against discrimination in the workplace. In 2020, she then sued the bank.
Goldman Sachs resisted, in some cases successfully, other lawsuits brought by women. The bank also used confidentiality agreements to keep misconduct claims against women and unfair treatment out of the spotlight.
Goldman Sachs and other big Wall Street banks have been promising to diversify their workforce and management for years. Nevertheless, only 29 percent of the number of “partners” at Goldman Sachs last year were women.
