Louisville, KY – Retail giant Wal-mart reached a deal with the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Monday, March 29 to settle a nearly nine year old sexual discrimination lawsuit. The suit alleged that from January 1998 to February 2005, one Kentucky Wal-Mart distribution warehouse location hired primarily men in their late teens and early twenties on the basis that women were not suitable applicants for order filling positions. The lawsuit was initiated in 2001.

Although Wal-Mart admits to no wrong doing by agreeing to the settlement, Arkansas based company agreed to pay out nearly $12M in damages and back pay. Wal-Mart has been ordered a quarter million dollars in administrative costs. Nearly $8.5 of the $12.5M has been assigned for back pay, while roughly another $3.5M has been allowed for damages. Wal-Mart has also been ordered to hire women to fill the next 50 order-fill positions at the Kentucky warehouse location, with positions first being offered to those whose names appear on a list of applicants to be provided by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Wal-Mart is also currently named in another case pending California appeals court.

This lawsuit is the largest sexual discrimination suit in American history.