State Street Corp., the bank behind the installation of the “Fearless Girl” statue on Wall Street, has reportedly settled more than 300 gender discrimination allegations within the company.
According to Bloomberg, “The custody bank will pay $5 million to more than 300 women, following a U.S. Department of Labor audit that uncovered the alleged discrepancies.”
“The Labor Department alleged that women in senior leadership positions at Boston-based State Street received lower base salaries, bonus pay and total compensation since at least December 2010,” they continued, adding, “The company said it has cooperated fully with the agency and that it disagreed with the findings of the audit, which was done in 2012.”
Despite the fact that over 300 women alleged gender discrimination at the company, State Street Corp. claimed in a statement to be “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.”
In April, Arturo di Modica, the artist behind the original “Charging Bull” art piece that Fearless Girl stands in front of, claimed the statue was “a deliberate choice was made to exploit and to appropriate the ‘Charging Bull’.”
Mr. Di Modica’s attorney reportedly “argued that this was in breach of the Visual Rights Act of 1990, which protects artists from having their work ‘intentionally distorted’ in a way that could be ‘prejudicial’ to their reputation, highlighting New York Mayor Bill de Blasio’s comments during a press conference announcing that the statue would remain for another year as proof.”
In response, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio claimed Mr. Di Modica’s complaints were “exactly why we need the Fearless Girl,” attempting to conflate the artist with sexism.
Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington and Gab @Nash, or like his page at Facebook.