One of Oregon’s most globally recognized companies spent years paying a former employee less and promoting her at a snail’s pace due, in part, to her sex. That’s the conclusion of a jury deliberating in a case brought by Heather Hender, an engineer who worked at Nike for five years.
A jury of one woman and seven men returned a slew of verdicts Wednesday finding that Nike violated federal and state laws when it failed to pay Hender at a level similar to her male colleagues.
The jury also found Nike promoted the former employee, Heather Hender, more slowly in part because of her gender.
The jury awarded Hender $19,739.52 in damages, and ruled that Nike also must pay at least $7.5 million in punitive damages.
The case focusing on Nike’s treatment of women started in 2018 when four employees sued the athletic wear company for sex discrimination. However, before the suit went to trial, three of the four women settled all their claims.
The six-day trial was centered on pay and promotion discrimination claims from Hender, who worked as a process engineer at the Nike headquarters in Washington County.
In the early years of the case, attorneys for Hender had sought to make it a class action lawsuit covering hundreds of female employees or former workers at Nike. In 2022, a judge denied that request.
That was before Nike submitted some documents and evidence — most of which was not allowed to be presented in Hender’s case — related to allegations against male employees at the company.
It’s highly likely that decisions made in this case will be challenged and sent to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. During that process, attorneys will be able to renew the effort to make it a class action case.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
This story comes to you from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.
