A new lawsuit accuses Walt Disney of systematically underpaying women in California, alleging that female employees in the state earned $150 million less than male employees over a period of eight years.

Filed Friday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, the lawsuit seeks a judge’s certification of a four year old civil suit as a class action lawsuit which would cover roughly 12,500 current or former full-time Disney employees who are female, and who held positions beneath the level of vice-president.

According to the filing, data from Disney’s human resource office shows that between April 2015 and December 2022, female Disney employees made roughly 2% less than their male coworkers. The analysis the filing quoted was performed by University of Irvine California professor and labor economist David Neumark.

Disney disputed the conclusions of the analysis.

Shawna M. Swanson, associate general counsel and head of the employment law division for Disney said, “The plaintiffs’ assertions about an alleged pay gap between women and men are simply false, which we will demonstrate through the litigation.”

Disney employee LaRonda Rasmussen filed the original suit in 2019, after learning that six men who occupied the same job position as her earned substantially more than she did, including a recent hire with several years less experience than she had, who was earning $20,000 more per year, according to the complaint. The lawsuit was joined by nine current or past Disney employees.

Lori Andrus, the plaintiffs’ lead attorney said, “Several of the named plaintiffs, they do love the Disney brand, they just want to be paid fairly.”

If women at the company are being paid less than men, that would be a breach of California’s Equal Pay Act and the Fair Employment and Housing Act.