NORTHERN TRUST CORP

Northern Trust agreed to pay $29 million to settle an EEOC lawsuit alleging widespread age discrimination against a class of older workers in its wealth management business, as documented by ViolationTracker. The settlement is one of the largest EEOC age discrimination resolutions on record. Northern Trust, a Chicago-based financial holding company managing over $1 trillion in assets, has also faced separate allegations of age-discriminatory pension plan amendments. In Teufel v. Northern Trust Company (7th Cir. 2018), older employees challenged changes to the company's defined benefit plan formula as violating the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, though the Seventh Circuit ultimately ruled the plan change did not violate ERISA or the ADEA. The $29 million employment discrimination settlement and the pension litigation together suggest a pattern of policies with disproportionate adverse impact on older workers.