Sanofi's $15M Settlement With Female Drug Reps Is Short on Cash But Long on Pay Raises

(MoneyWatch)  Sanofi-Aventis (SNY)'s $15 million settlement in a sex discrimination class action lawsuit may not make female pharmaceutical sales reps very rich. Once you take out the attorneys' fees, the "pay equity analysis" fee and the service fee for the five named plaintiffs, then the 4,000 women affected by the settlement could receive, on average, just $2,047 each.

The benefit of the settlement may instead be in the fine print. Beyond the settlement, Sanofi has also agreed that:

... where a pay disparity exists based on gender, the company will make upward adjustments to class members' salaries. Any female sales force employee who receives an upward base pay adjustment will then receive future pay raises from a higher base-level salary, thus potentially having a significant future impact on class members' total compensation. Base pay adjustments made pursuant to this component of the settlement could also be factored into the Class Members' benefits, bonuses, and other auxiliary compensation.

Translation: Are you female? Then you get a raise! The lawyers estimate that this provision could add another $10 million to the pot. Oddly, there's not much chatter about this on CafePharma, the bulletin board where drug sales reps go to gossip.

Here's how the settlement breaks down:

• Total settlement: $15,360,000
• Attorney fees: $4,590,000
• "Pay equity analysis": $2,047,000
• Named plaintiff award: $535,000
• Total remaining for 4,000 female employees: $8,188,000, or about $2,047 each.

The suit claimed that Sanofi "grooms" male reps for training courses and promotions that are denied to the women. One plaintiff, Amy Zeoli of Cheshire, Conn., who sold the blood thinner Plavix, alleges that she asked her district manager for a raise during a ride-along on her sales route, and he replied that her husband was an attorney and therefore "must make money."

Memo to management: Nothing will ever come of this but the fact that the thread titled "Join a Union ???" is one of the most active for Sanofi reps on CafePharma should tell you how low morale is among some of your people. Hat tip to Pharmalot. Gavel image via Flickr user Thomas Roche, CC 2.0. Related:

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