UNDERPAID GIRL
Firm behind Fearless Girl statue will pay $5 million to settle wage discrimination allegations,
The firm that commissioned the popular Fearless Girl statue in New York’s financial district has agreed to pay $5 million, mostly to settle claims that it discriminated against 305 top female employees by paying them less than men in the same positions.
In the agreement, officials at the Labor Department also allege that the firm, State Street Corp., discriminated against 15 of its black vice presidents by paying them less than white employees in the same positions.
State Street, a financial services firm, denies the allegations, according to the agreement.
Still, the filing says that the firm has agreed to pay about $4.5 million in back pay and about $500,000 in interest into a settlement fund for the affected employees.
In a statement on Thursday, the company said that it “is committed to equal pay practices and evaluates on an ongoing basis our internal processes to be sure our compensation, hiring and promotions programs are nondiscriminatory,” according to The Associated Press.
Federal officials began their “evaluation” of State Street in late 2012, according to the agreement. They contend that the compensation discrimination dates back to December 2010.
Fearless Girl, a bronze statue of a small child, has drawn consistent crowds since it first assumed its defiant stance in the front of the financial district’s well-known “Charging Bull” in March.
State Street Global Advisors, a division of State Street Corporation, said that it had installed the statue there on the eve of International Women’s Day in order to celebrate “the power of women in leadership, and the potential of the next generation of women leaders.”
As news of the $5 million agreement spread Thursday, many Twitter users were quick to assail the company once more, citing what they perceived as hypocrisy.
“IRONY. The company that erected the ‘Fearless Girl’ statue pays fine on pay discrimination, re women and blacks,” wrote one with a photo of the statue under the words “Fearless girl, Underpaid girl.”