State Street Corp. has agreed to pay $5 million to resolve a federal investigation into whether it discriminated against female and black executives by paying them less than their colleagues.
The settlement comes only months after the financial giant received plaudits for sponsoring the “Fearless Girl” statue near Wall Street in Manhattan as part of its effort to get more women placed on the boards of public companies.
In March, an office within the Department of Labor found that State Street had discriminated against women at the senior vice president, managing director, and vice president levels by paying them less than men in similar positions. The agency also claims the company paid black employees less than similarly positioned white employees.
The pay practices covered a two-year period and affected 305 female executives and 15 black vice presidents, the government said. They will receive a total of $4.5 million in back pay and nearly $508,000 in interest.
r upper-level executives at its headquarters tower and agreed to provide those results, as well as payroll data the agency can use to conduct its own evaluations. The company agreed to conduct these studies annually for three years.
The federal agency had claimed that State Street violated federal regulations by failing to perform an in-depth analysis to determine impediments to equal employment opportunities. State Street denied that accusation, but agreed to perform these in-depth analyses, including by analyzing all factors that result in gender- and race-based compensation disparities.