Goldman to Pay $215 Million to End Gender Pay Case

So what do we know about this settlement and what were we expecting from that trial? So the trial was due to begin next month and we knew that Goldman didn't really want all of its internal workings out in public like that and the court also just steps away from Goldman's downtown office in New York. There was a lot of conjecture about what would really come out because women in this industry have complained for decades about sexual discrimination, about harassment and about retaliation if they do complain against these issues. A lot of women have said that careers have been derailed when they raise these issues. So there were a lot of things in there that were hopefully maybe going to come out that Goldman wouldn't have liked. 2800 women, 2800 women in this class action lawsuit. How did it all get started? It's an incredible number isn't it Sherry? So this suit started back in 2005 actually. So that's when the first complaint was made by a woman called Christina Chen Oster who was an MIT graduate who began at Goldman in 1997 as a convertible bond sales person and she first complained to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2005 then sued finally in 2010 and obviously now we're at 2023.

A lot of others have joined that complaint and joined that lawsuit. So this is a huge victory. That amount, $215 million is more than double the amount that Smith Barney paid decades ago to settle an action of a similar type. Yet a third of that to be set aside for attorney fees. How much progress is being made? I mean this has become a tale as old as time in terms of the complaints right? Has there been progress in terms of Goldman in terms of representation? They certainly are making the right noises and whether that leads to direct action they're definitely trying. Goldman even a couple of years ago said that they wouldn't take a company public unless there were a couple of women on the board, unless the board of directors had diversity. That's in the US.

But their partner class last year was about 29% women and that was the most diverse they've ever had. So you can see there's a lot of work still to be done unfortunately.

Banking, Class action lawsuit, Executive pay, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Haidi Stroud-Watts, Nabila Ahmed, Settlements, Shery Ahn, U.S., Workplace Gender Equality, gender discrimination, lawsuit, women