The Supreme Court Justices agreed today that they will review a federal court decision that approved a single gender-bias lawsuit against Wal-Mart that involves roughly 1.5 million people over the span of a decade.  This will be the largest US employment class-action suit ever.

This lawsuit was originally filed by seven women against Wal-Mart nine years ago.  It accuses the company of paying male employees higher wages than female employees for doing the same job.  Also, the company is accused of giving their female employees fewer promotions than their male employees.

Wal-Mart says that the problems were isolated incidents coming from various stores in various parts of the country.  The case involves women from 41 regions, 400 districts, and range across 170 job classifications.  Wal-Mart believes that the cases should be looked at individually rather than as a single case because of the varied amount of claims.

Class-action lawsuits make it easier to sue large companies and receive higher payouts.

If Wal-Mart is found liable, they have not set aside any funds to pay the damages and can not estimate how much they would be.  The company is the world’s largest retailer and has taken in approximately $400 billion in the past year.

The Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments in this case in March and render their verdict in June.

by Jana Hughes

• More Posts