OR Walt Disney will pay 43.3 million dollars to its female employees in California, who filed a lawsuit accusing the company of paying $150 million over eight years. dollars more to their male colleagues than to them, the plaintiffs’ lawyers said.

The settlement also provides that Disney will retain a labor investigator for three years to analyze pay equity among California’s full-time, non-union workers.

The lawsuit was originally filed by Laronda Rasmussen in 2019 after she learned that six men with the same job title as her were making much more, including a man with less experience who was making $20,000 a year more than her.

About 9,000 current and former employees of the entertainment company eventually joined the group that filed the lawsuit.

Disney tried to stop the class action, but a judge ruled last December that it can go forward.

“I sincerely congratulate Ms. Rasmussen and the women who brought this lawsuit against Disney, one of the largest entertainment companies in the world, risking their careers,” said a lawyer for the legal team.

The plaintiffs’ evidence was supported by an analysis of Disney human resources data from April 2015 to December 2022, which found that female Disney employees were paid about 2 percent less than their male counterparts. The analysis was conducted by David Neumark, a professor at the University of California Irvine and an occupational therapist.

The settlement agreement, which was filed in California state court, still requires a judge’s approval, according to the lawyers.