Seattle, Nov. 13 (AP): Boeing has agreed to pay $72.5 million to thousands of women to settle a class-action sex-discrimination lawsuit.

The payout, revealed in documents filed on Thursday in the US district court in Seattle, is the maximum allowed under a settlement agreement that won preliminary approval from a federal judge last year, the Seattle Times reported yesterday.

As part of the deal, Boeing admitted no wrongdoing but agreed to change its hiring, pay and promotion practices.

If the plaintiffs’ motion for speedy payment is granted, cheques could be in the mail to some 17,960 current and former female Boeing employees by Christmas. The exact amounts to be disbursed could range from $500 to $26,000.