Walmart has agreed to pay $60,000 to a former female employee to settle a legal dispute in which she claimed that the company unfairly denied her a promotion. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed a lawsuit against Walmart in February 2022, alleging that the company discriminated against the employee on the basis of gender.
The allegation was that Walmart refused to promote her because of stereotypes about women with small children at home. The employee had taken maternity leave from October 2017 to January 2018 and, upon her return to the Ottumwa, Iowa store, applied for a managerial position in the pet department. Despite encouragement from other managers, passing the manager’s test, and having at least three years more experience at Walmart than the selected candidate, the worker was not chosen for the role. When seeking feedback, she was informed that the company doubted her long-term commitment because she had small children at home.
In addition to this lawsuit, the EEOC also accused Walmart of racial discrimination. The company was accused of providing an unsanitary storage closet for a Black worker who needed to express breast milk. This space was described as ‘cluttered and dirty,’ with dead bugs on the floor, in contrast to the clean office space provided to a white employee for the same purpose.
On 10 January, Walmart signed a consent decree agreeing to pay the former worker $30,000 in back pay and an additional $30,000 in compensatory damages to settle the claims, without admitting wrongdoing. The EEOC initiated the lawsuit after failed attempts to reach a conciliation agreement with the Arkansas-based retailer.
