Goldman Sachs reached a settlement deal this week in a class-action case that alleged the firm underpaid women and passed them over for promotions. The bank agreed to a $215 million payment and said it would adjust practices around performance evaluations and pay equity inside the firm.
It’s the culmination of a long-running legal saga, resolving a suit that accused Goldman (ticker: GS) of paying women less than men “at nearly all levels of its management ranks” and of systematically excluding women from opportunities to advance. The agreement, which will need court approval, covers about 2,800 women who worked in associate and vice president roles from as early as July 2002 through March 28 of this year. A trial was scheduled to begin next month.
Lead plaintiff Cristina Chen-Oster, a former vice president at the bank, initially filed the suit in 2010.