Wet Seal to Pay $7.5 Million in Discrimination Lawsuit

Wet Seal agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle a federal racial discrimination lawsuit that accused the retailer of firing black employees because they didn’t fit the retailer’s “brand image.” The NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund represented the plaintiffs in the class-action effort. The lawsuit alleged that former top Wet Seal executives denied equal pay and promotion opportunities to black store managers or removed them outright, replacing them with white employees.