Pot, meet kettle.
The financial firm behind Wall Street’s “Fearless Girl” statue has agreed to pay out $5 million to more than 300 women and 15 black employees — over allegations that it paid them less than their white, male colleagues.
State Street Corp., which erected the makeshift monument earlier this year to promote gender equality, said they would cough up the dough this week after being audited by the US Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs.
The findings from the audit were filed in Boston on Wednesday, along with the settlement agreement.
State Street, a $2.6 trillion asset management company based out of Beantown, will now have to pay a combined $5 million to female and black employees that were allegedly discriminated against.
Since at least 2010, hundreds of women were paid less than their male counterparts — in base salary, bonus pay and total compensation, according to federal officials.
They allegedly included females employed in the Senior Vice President, Managing Director, and Vice President positions.
“OFCCP’s analysis demonstrates that a statistically significant disparity in compensation remained even when legitimate factors affecting pay were taken into account,” the Labor Department said Thursday in its filing.
Officials allege that black employees were also discriminated against — with at least 15 individuals being paid less in base salary and total compensation than their “similarly-situated” white colleagues.
While State Street agreed to settle, the firm officially denied the claims in a statement.
“State Street is committed to equal pay practices and evaluates on an ongoing basis our internal processes to be sure our compensation, hiring and promotions programs are nondiscriminatory,” a spokesperson said. “While we disagreed with the OFCCP’s analysis and findings, we have cooperated fully with them, and made a decision to bring this six-year-old matter to resolution and move forward.”
The allegations ultimately portray the firm — which fights for equal pay and often calls on other companies to add more women to their workforce — in a much different light.
“So…the brave “fearless girl” was just for show? The bank is actually a bunch of phonies??? Hahahaha,” wrote one Twitter user, who was one of countless people to call State Street out as hypocrites.
“Oh what’s this the Fearless Girl was a PR stunt from hypocritical Wall Street f–kheads? What do you know!” another added.
The statue, which faces down Wall Street’s iconic “Charging Bull,” was created by the McCann New York advertising agency — in collaboration with the State Street Global Advisors management division.
State Street funded the controversial project in hopes of celebrating women in top leadership roles and promoting equal pay.
Many people were outraged, though, by its erection on International Women’s Day, including “Charging Bull” sculptor Arturo Di Modica.
The Italian artist believes the “Fearless Girl” changed people’s perspectives on the “Bull” — which was meant to be a symbol of the booming economy, and not male dominance on Wall Street, like many were later led to believe.
“The placement of the statue of the young girl in opposition to ‘Charging Bull’ has undermined the integrity [of] and modified the ‘Charging Bull,’ ” Di Modica’s lawyer, Norman Siegel, explained in April.
“The ‘Charging Bull’ no longer carries a positive, optimistic message. Rather it has been transformed into a negative force and a threat.”