How the justices resolve the case will have significant impact. As the largest employment discrimination case ever, it pits millions of female employees against the country's largest retail establishment. Female employees and all of corporate America are watching closely.  Wal-Mart is the nation's largest private employer, with millions of employees working in over 3,400 stores. Each Wal-Mart employs between 80 to 500 people and hourly workers are assigned to 53 departments in 170 job classifications. Women comprise over 80% of hourly workers and hold only one-third of managerial store management jobs.  Wal-Mart has a companywide policy that bars workplace discrimination based on sex. But individual Wal-Mart store managers have substantial discretion in making salary and promotion decisions.  On behalf of the class, the women complained that they had been subjected to an array of discriminatory actions. They charged, among other things, that they had been denied management training, experienced retaliation for initiating internal grievance procedures, had not been promoted, had been harassed, and denied equal pay.  The complaint alleged that Wal-Mart "fosters or facilitates gender stereotyping and discrimination . . . and that this discrimination is common to all women who work or have worked in Wal-Mart stores."  A California federal court granted class certification, a procedural green-light to proceed to trial. After the Ninth Circuit appellate court upheld this decision, Wal-Mart appealed to the Supreme Court.  It is important to understand what the Supreme Court will not be deciding. The court will not be addressing whether the employees have legitimate claims, or whether Wal-Mart has engaged in discrimination, or whether the women -- or Wal-Mart for that matter --should win. Instead, the Supreme Court will evaluate whether the proposed litigation satisfied the legal requirements for a case to go forward as a large class action.
In perhaps one of the most closely watched cases on its docket, the Supreme Court yesterday heard oral argument in the largest employment class-action litigation ever.Betty Dukes and six former and