Rasmussen v. Disney
Women working at Disney, the world’s largest media company, have consistently been passed over for promotions and paid less than their male coworkers. This pattern was widespread, occurring throughout Disney’s many divisions and at every subsidiary Disney owned. According to an expert analysis, there is a one-in-a-billion chance this happened for any reason besides gender. In California alone, these missing wages add up to over $151 million since 2015.
After a group of current and former female Disney employees filed a lawsuit alleging Disney violated California’s Equal Pay Act and other laws, experts in the case reviewed hundreds of corporate documents. These documents show that leaders at Disney not only knew about the pay gap, but met about it, hired consultants to analyze it, lied about it, took steps to slightly improve it, but ultimately chose not to fix it.
This evidence was largely filed under seal, at Disney’s request. But California’s courts and laws have long recognized that the public has a common law and constitutional right of access to court proceedings and court documents. A party requesting to seal court documents must show a good reason for doing so, and that that reason outweighs the public’s rights of access. Disney’s lawyers did not provide any specific facts to support their request and only made broad allegations that they would be harmed if the documents were released.
Open access to court proceedings and judicial records is a fundamental element of the American legal system. Just as fundamental is the role of the press.
On behalf of the Los Angeles-based journalism organization KnockLA, Public Justice filed a motion with the court to join the case as amicus (a “friend of the court”) in October 2023. Public Justice believes that the public’s right to access court records should be protected, and journalists play a vital role in obtaining and sharing what is in those records. In this case, we believe that Californians want to know “whether the Walt Disney Company and its affiliates have robbed women workers of millions of dollars in wages over the past eight years…Open access to court proceedings and judicial records is a fundamental element of the American legal system. Just as fundamental is the role of the press.”
Two months later, Disney’s attorneys abruptly withdrew their request to seal the vast majority of the documents from the equal pay lawsuit. Lori Andrus, a lead attorney for the workers, believes that “what really made the difference was the pressure applied by Public Justice’s appearance in the case.”
Several news outlets have now viewed and reported on the evidence in Disney’s pay equity case. From The Hollywood Reporter:
The documents are now part of the public record of the case and have been reviewed by several journalism outlets. They reveal damaging evidence about Disney’s knowledge of its “pay equity nightmare.”
In 2014, Nancy Dolan — manager of creative music marketing at Disney — was denied a promotion to director over the objections of her supervisor, president of music Mitchell Leib, who said she was “worth her weight in gold.” He urged higher-ups to reconsider the decision…Dolan, nine years later, still holds the same position of senior manager she was offered at the time in lieu of a promotion to director.
The message over Dolan’s compensation and title at the company — part of a collection of nearly 200 court records unsealed Tuesday and reviewed by The Hollywood Reporter — challenge arguments from Disney that it equitably pays women and men. In another email, [VP of Compensation] NaShawn Bacon in 2020 acknowledges a “pay equity nightmare.”
Although the court dismissed our motion to join the case as amicus, plaintiff’s counsel is now preparing for trial, which is set for May 2025.
