Compliance April 25, 2007

Morgan Stanley Settles Gender Discrimination Suit for $46M

Morgan Stanley has agreed to pay $46 million to settle a gender bias lawsuit brought last June by thousands of female advisers.
Reported by
The suit, which claimed the firm discriminated by paying its female brokers less than their male counterparts, was filed by six former female brokers last June, but later added more than 3,000 claimants who worked at Morgan Stanley from August 5, 2003 to the present, the Associated Press reported.
In particular, the suit said that Morgan Stanley offered more favorable training and mentoring as well as more lucrative accounts and promotions to men. According to the wire service, some of the plaintiffs said in August 2005 they were fired because they were female when the firm terminated about 1,000 brokers.
The settlement agreement also includes a promise by the firm that it will adopt new methods to ensure women aren’t discriminated against when accounts of brokers who depart or go into management are redistributed and will establish new programs for training female brokers for management jobs, the AP reported. The parties estimated that over the next five years the bank will spend $7.5 million on training and that female brokers’ pay will go up by $16 million.
The settlement is pending approval by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

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