Dive Brief:
- A jury in St. Louis found that Anheuser-Busch InBev did not discriminate against Francine Katz, once the company's highest ranking female employee.
- The jury of seven women and five men deliberated for 10 hours over two days before issuing a decision. Nine of the 12 sided with AB, the world's largest brewer.
- Katz was paid roughly $1 million a year. Her male predecessor was paid significantly better. AB InBev argued that Katz had fewer duties than the the man she replaced at Anheuser-Busch, the family-owned company acquired by InBev in 2008.
Dive Insight:
This was always going to be a difficult case for Katz to win. There was no clear paper trail of sexist commentary, and no group of other women executives alleging poor treatment. Most importantly, the truth is that Katz' compensation dwarfed that of the average American. It's not easy to generate sympathy for a million-dollar-a-year executive.
Regardless of what did, or did not, go wrong in the trial for Katz, the jury has reached its decision. Now AB InBev can return to doing what it does best -- brewing beer.