Goldman pays $215m to settle claims it underpaid female bankers

GOLDMAN SACHS has agreed to pay $215m (£170m) to settle a long-running lawsuit that alleged it underpaid female bankers for years.

The Wall Street giant struck a deal with lawyers representing nearly 3,000 female associates and vice-presidents who worked at the lender and claimed they were undervalued by male bosses.

Goldman said it will hire an independent expert “to conduct an additional analysis on performance evaluation processes” at the bank, as well as conduct “pay equity studies”.

About a third of the proceeds are expected to be set aside for paying the plaintiffs’ legal fees. The original complaint was launched by two former female employees in 2010, who won the right to lead a class action suit in 2018.

Adam Klein, a lawyer at Outten & Golden who represented the women, said the settlement “offers meaningful relief to our clients”. The case had been scheduled to go to trial next month in New York in what would have provided a rare public testimony about alleged gender discrimination on Wall Street.

Jacqueline Arthur, global head of human capital management at Goldman, said the bank was “proud of its long record of promoting and advancing women and remains committed to ensuring a diverse and inclusive workplace for all our people”.

The claim was first brought by Cristina Chen-oster, who joined the investment bank in 1997. She filed a discrimination complaint with an employment commission in July 2005 before launching formal legal action in 2010. Last year, a former female managing director at Goldman released a book about her time at the bank, which included allegations of overt sexism and bullying.

Jamie Fiore Higgins, who worked at the bank for 17 years, claimed to have been “mooed” at by her male colleagues when she used a lactation room after the birth of her second child.