Catherwood LibraryILR School

Two studies conducted as part of a discrimination lawsuit being brought against retail behemoth Wal-Mart Stores Inc. indicate a pattern of nationwide discrimination against women in pay and hiring that may form the basis for a class action suit that would be the largest in U.S. history---involving over 1 million current and former female employees. According to the first of the two studies, female workers are the victims of an escalating pay gap that averages thirty-seven cents an hour for wage employees, and climbs from an average salary difference of four percent for low-level managers to an average salary difference of thirty-three percent between top female and male executives. The second study shows that Wal-Mart lags behind similar retailers in forty-nine states in the percentage of management positions held by women, and points out that with women making up only just over one third of its managers, Wal-Mart is over two decades behind twenty other major retailers on this indicator of gender bias.