Since the suit was filed in federal court, the plaintiffs were entitled to punitive damages up to $300,000. Generally courts don’t award these damages often, unless the conduct is very egregious. In this case, it sounds like it was.

If you want to read more about the settlement, check out the following link:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009708604_weblowes21m.html

Ryan Pauley

Wal-mart argued it would be unfair to allow over 2 million women to proceed against the company in one lawsuit without making each woman prove all the facts of her own case. The women argued Wal-mart’s sex discrimination was system wide and applied in all of its 3,400 stores and that, since each female worker is entitled to only a few thousand dollars, lawyers would be hesitant to represent them on an individual basis.

I feel the Court should allow the case to go forward en masse as a class action. Not only would requiring each woman to bring her own case flood the nation’s courts with litigation involving thousands of similar cases, if Wal-mart acted improperly, it most likely made billions of dollars by not paying equal pay for equal work and by systematically denying female workers promotions. It only makes sense that, if a company systematically violates the law, it should also be required to systematically defend its conduct.

For more information on this cutting edge case, see http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/24/BA2A16MCPP.DTL

Tim Pauley