Judge Denies Class Certification in Sex Discrimination Pay Class Action Against Nike

A U.S. District Court Judge in Oregon recently refused to certify a proposed sex discrimination class action filed by a group of current and former female employees against Nike. The ruling cited insufficient evidence that a potential class of 5,200 female employees were harmed due to a company policy or practice of basing lower pay for female employees due to their former job’s pay.

The case originally alleged that female employees were paid on average $11,000 a year less than male counterparts. Nike claimed there was no discrimination. The ruling did not dismiss that there is a pay discrepancy but that plaintiffs did not provide the statistical data to show that previous job’s starting pay was used as a data point in that determination.

While the class certification has been denied, the 14 plaintiffs in the case can proceed with their individual claims.


This blog is intended to provide information to the general public and to practitioners about developments that may impact Oregon class actions.

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Steve Larson

An experienced trial lawyer who handles both hourly and contingent fee cases, Steve has expertise in class actions, environmental clean-up litigation, antitrust litigation, securities litigation, corporate disputes, intellectual property disputes, unfair competition claims, and disputes involving family wealth. Steve regularly represents individuals and businesses in federal and state court and has obtained class-wide recovery in multiple class actions. A veteran practitioner, Steve’s clients value his creative approach to resolving complex litigation matters.

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