Cher Scarlett facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Cher Scarlett
Scarlett in 2021
Born	(1985-04-06) April 6, 1985 (age 40) Walla Walla, Washington, U.S.
Occupation	Software engineer
Employer	ControlZee
Known for	Workers' rights advocacy
Notable work	#AppleToo movement Apple Together

Cher Scarlett (born April 6, 1985) is an American software engineer, workers' rights activist, and writer. She is well-known for starting the #AppleToo movement. She has helped organize employees at big companies like Apple, Activision Blizzard, and Starbucks.

Cher Scarlett taught herself how to build websites when she was a teenager in the late 1990s. This helped her start a career in software engineering even without a college degree, especially after her child was born. Her experiences in a job field mostly dominated by men made her want to speak up for workers' rights and criticize how some big companies operate.

She was a main leader of the #AppleToo movement. This group collected and shared stories from current and former Apple employees who felt they were treated unfairly. She also helped start Apple Together, a group that supports workers. Scarlett filed complaints against Apple with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which is a government agency that protects workers' rights. She also filed complaints with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which oversees companies. After months of speaking out, Scarlett left Apple. She said she faced harassment and unfair treatment. In 2024, the NLRB said Apple illegally fired Scarlett by making her feel forced to quit. In 2025, another company, Mozilla, settled a case with the NLRB for not hiring Scarlett because of her activism at Apple.

Scarlett has also successfully worked to change labor laws in Washington state. She pushed for Apple shareholders (people who own parts of the company) to vote on important issues like civil rights and secrecy agreements. These were the first such proposals approved by Apple shareholders in over 10 years. Because of this, Apple changed its employee contracts to be more fair.

Early Life and Learning

Cher Scarlett was born in Walla Walla, Washington, and grew up in Kirkland. She lived with her mother, who worked in construction. She learned to code by herself during middle school. She made a website for her gaming group in EverQuest and kept practicing web development on a blogging site called LiveJournal.

She also worked in service jobs, like at Krispy Kreme, when her daughter was young.

Career and Activism

Early Career (2007–2015)

In 2007, Scarlett worked briefly as a web developer for a real estate company. She worked as a freelance developer until 2011. Then, she was hired as a web developer at USA Today. Her manager there called her a "talented developer."

Working at Activision Blizzard (2015–2016)

In 2015, Scarlett became a software engineer at Activision Blizzard, a video game company. She worked on their Battle.net platform. While there, she spoke to the human resources department about pay differences based on gender and sexism she noticed. Her manager told The Washington Post that she was a very dedicated employee.

Scarlett left Blizzard in 2016. In 2021, she shared her experiences to help with a lawsuit that said the company had unfair treatment and punished employees who spoke up. Scarlett encouraged others to come forward and supported a walkout (when employees stop working to protest). She spoke publicly about how she believed female employees were treated unfairly, including being underpaid and abused. She said that this behavior was "normal and protected" at the company.

Scarlett said that working at a "dream job" like Blizzard could make employees ignore bad things because they wanted to be there so much. The company said it appreciated Scarlett's courage and was working to make the workplace fair and safe.

Advocating at Starbucks and Webflow (2016–2020)

Scarlett joined World Wide Technology in 2016. In 2017, she was hired as a lead software engineer at Starbucks, where she worked from home. At Starbucks, she helped with a successful effort to fix pay differences based on gender.

After leaving Starbucks in 2019 to work at Webflow, she wrote about how Starbucks might have paid lower wages to workers in areas with more Black people or other underrepresented groups. She continued to write, mostly about fairness in tech companies. She also helped manage a website called 1x.engineer, which promotes a healthy work–life balance in tech.

Speaking Up at Apple (2020–2021)

In April 2020, Scarlett started working as a main software engineer on Apple's software security team. She worked remotely from St. Louis and later from Seattle.

About a year into her job, Scarlett became involved in workplace activism on Apple's internal chat system, Slack. She became the most public voice for workplace issues at Apple. Before her, employees rarely spoke to the media about the company's very secretive culture. Scarlett was praised for inspiring others to speak out. However, some criticized her for breaking the company's unwritten rules about not speaking publicly about Apple. She said that hundreds of people asked for help with concerns about fair pay, discrimination, and strict rules about working from home. She also said that Apple's "cult-like" culture of loyalty and secrecy made employees afraid to speak out. She told The New York Times, "Never have I met people more terrified to speak out against their employer."

In September 2021, Scarlett asked for medical leave. She said that harassment from co-workers was affecting her mental health. She said that Apple asked her to stop talking about the company publicly. She felt forced to agree and was given paid time off instead of medical leave. Scarlett described several times she was harassed by co-workers at Apple. This included a mean email, accusations of sharing secret information, hateful messages, and someone sharing her private information online. She said that even though the company helped her with safety, Apple allowed the abuse by not speaking out against it.

On November 19, 2021, Scarlett quit Apple. She later said she felt alone, scared, and punished after filing complaints with the NLRB and SEC against the company.

Working from Home Advocacy

Around June 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Apple announced that most employees would need to return to the office several days a week. Scarlett helped lead employees in organizing to continue working remotely. She tweeted about how important remote work was for disabled employees, people who care for others, and workers from low-income backgrounds. She encouraged some co-workers to ask for special arrangements under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 to keep working from home.

Apple said that "in-person collaboration is essential" for the company's culture. Scarlett criticized this, saying, "There's this idea that people skateboarding around tech campuses are bumping into each other and coming up with great new inventions. That's just not true." She pointed out that Apple already had employees working from many different places.

Apple's plans for returning to the office were delayed several times because of rising COVID-19 cases.

The #AppleToo Movement and Apple Together

Scarlett, along with Janneke Parrish, was a leader of the #AppleToo movement. In August 2021, the group created a website where they posted anonymous reports from Apple employees and contractors. These reports described unfair treatment, including verbal abuse, punishment for speaking out, discrimination, bad working conditions, and unequal pay. Scarlett said the group received over 600 stories.

Parrish was later fired. The group then started organizing more formally as Apple Together, a group that supports workers. Scarlett and Parrish helped found this group and still advise it. Organizers said they were not being paid fairly for their work and many were struggling to live. Scarlett asked The Washington Post, "If the richest company in the world won't pay its workers enough to live, who will?"

Apple has stated that they work to create a welcoming workplace where everyone is respected.

Fair Pay and NLRB Complaints

On September 1, 2021, Scarlett filed a complaint with the NLRB. She said that Apple had broken the law by stopping employees from talking about their salaries and collecting data to check for racial or gender-based pay differences. A month before, she started a survey at the company to share wage information, after Apple stopped other employees from doing so. Over 3,000 employees responded to her survey.

Scarlett and Apple reached a settlement in November 2021. This agreement included a payment to Scarlett and her lawyers. It also required Apple to publicly state that employees could freely discuss workplace conditions and pay. However, Scarlett later said Apple did not keep its part of the agreement. As of April 2022, the NLRB was still investigating her complaint. Scarlett also filed complaints about Apple punishing employees and making her feel forced to quit.

Scarlett's complaints, along with other employee activism, led some shareholder groups to propose a "civil-rights audit" for Apple. This audit would look into how Apple treats its employees, especially regarding diversity and fairness. Scarlett said that Apple's actions did not match the values they showed to their shareholders and the public. She said that charts she tweeted showed that "white men have much more opportunities to advance within the company." Apple suggested shareholders vote against the proposal, but on March 4, 2022, shareholders voted in favor of it for the first time in 10 years.

Apple has said that they check pay annually to ensure fairness and that their existing policies already meet the goals of the audit. They also stated that "underrepresented communities represent nearly half of the U.S. workforce." Even though the vote was not legally binding, Apple agreed to do the audit.

Secrecy Agreements and SEC Whistleblowing

In fall 2021, other activists and investment firms filed a proposal at Apple about the use of secrecy agreements (NDAs). On October 25, 2021, Scarlett filed a whistleblower complaint with the SEC. She said Apple had claimed it did not use NDAs for harassment or discrimination cases, but she had been given one as part of her separation agreement, which she refused to sign. In her complaint, Scarlett said Apple tried to make her say her leaving was a "personal decision" instead of because of a bad work environment. The SEC later rejected Apple's request to avoid the proposal.

During her settlement talks with Apple, Scarlett also asked the company to add language to its agreements that would allow employees to discuss unlawful acts in the workplace. Apple refused at the time. However, they later told the SEC that they would add this language to all separation agreements in the United States. Shareholders voted to approve this proposal on March 4, 2022.

After leaving Apple in November 2021, Scarlett accepted a job with a non-profit organization. During her background check, it was found that Apple had incorrectly reported her job title as "associate" to a database. This caused a delay in her hiring, and eventually, the job offer was taken back. A lawyer said that reporting false job titles might be illegal. Scarlett filed another complaint with the SEC about this, saying it was retaliation.

Current Activism (2021–Present)

Scarlett is part of the Tech Worker Committee for The Solidarity Fund. This fund helps Apple and Netflix workers who are involved in organizing. Scarlett said, "There's a solidarity movement happening and there are hundreds of people from different parts of the company that are coming together to support the most vulnerable."

In early 2022, Scarlett helped Starbucks baristas in their efforts to form a union. She connected them with Workers United (WU), a trade union. She also helped Apple retail employees at Grand Central Terminal connect with WU, and they voted to join the union. In April 2022, these workers went public with their organizing efforts to collect signatures to file for union representation with the NLRB.

Scarlett joined game studio ControlZee in March 2022 to work on a game called dot big bang.

Scarlett was one of five expert researchers involved in a March 2022 Financial Times investigation into "Russia's Google," Yandex. Scarlett and the other researchers found that Yandex was collecting and storing sensitive information about users in Russia. The Kremlin (Russian government) could legally demand access to this information. Scarlett said users were "trying to be proactive in being more safe, but actually making [themselves] more vulnerable."

Complaints Against Mozilla

In April 2022, The Washington Post reported that Scarlett believed she was not hired for jobs at Mozilla and Epic Games because of her activism at Apple. She filed complaints with the NLRB against both companies. On November 22, 2023, the NLRB filed a complaint against Mozilla for "failure to hire" Scarlett. They said Mozilla rejected her to discourage employees from speaking up about their rights. On January 14, 2025, Mozilla settled the case with the NLRB. They agreed to pay Scarlett $300,000 for lost wages and benefits. They also agreed to post a notice telling employees about the settlement and their rights.

Laws She Helped Pass

Protecting Whistleblowers

In 2021, Scarlett worked to change employer secrecy rules in Washington state. She pushed for a law similar to California's Silenced No More Act, which stops employers from silencing whistleblowers (people who report wrongdoing). Scarlett worked with state senators and representatives on these bills. Scarlett and another former Google employee testified in support of the house bill (HB 1795) they inspired, which became law on March 3, 2022. This law helps protect people who speak out.

After this law passed in Washington, Google promised to offer similar protections to all its employees. Apple also added the language from the new law to its employment contracts, even though they had refused to do so as part of Scarlett's own separation agreement.

Pay Transparency

In 2022, Scarlett also worked for a bill (SB 5761) that requires companies with 15 or more employees to post salary information on job postings. This includes internal job transfers for current employees. Scarlett had moved while at Apple and could not get information about her new pay until after she moved. She spoke in favor of the bill on February 16, 2022. She talked about how her own wages were kept low because past employers asked for her salary expectations instead of saying what the job paid. She said that groups who are often overlooked are not in a good position to negotiate, and keeping pay secret leads to pay differences. The bill became law on March 1, 2022.

Health Data Privacy

In 2023, Scarlett spoke in favor of the My Health, My Data Act. This law stops companies from collecting and sharing digital health data without permission. It also prevents tracking consumers around healthcare services. It was the first law of its kind in the nation. Scarlett said the bill was made weaker after an amendment allowed businesses to track location data within a certain distance without permission. The bill was signed into law in April 2023.

Personal Life

Scarlett has Bipolar I disorder and ADHD.

She is active on Twitter, where she is known for speaking up for marginalized groups.

See also

• Timnit Gebru
• Chris Smalls
• Sophie Zhang
• Jaz Brisack
• Emma Kinema

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