FILE PHOTO: Sleeping Beauty Castle is pictured at dusk at Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California, U.S., July 24, 2021. Picture taken July 24, 2021. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni/File Photo

By Jonathan Stempel

(Reuters) -A California judge has approved Walt Disney's $233 million settlement with 51,478 Disneyland employees who said the entertainment company denied them a living wage.

The class-action settlement won final approval on Tuesday by Judge William Claster of the Orange County Superior Court, who called the accord fair, reasonable, adequate and consistent with public policy.

About $179.6 million will go to class members, according to court papers.

Another $17.5 million represents a civil penalty being paid to the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency, while $35 million will go to the employees' lawyers. Remaining sums will cover other costs.

The lawsuit began in December 2019, after Disney claimed it was exempt from a minimum wage law approved a year earlier by voters in Anaheim, where Disneyland is located.

Known as Measure L, that law required businesses receiving tax subsidies from the city to pay resort workers at least $15 an hour in 2019, and increasing amounts in subsequent years.

A Disney spokeswoman said nearly 96% of the Burbank, California-based company's employees, which it refers to as cast members, now earn more than $22 an hour, above the current $20.42 minimum under Measure L.

California's minimum wage is $16.50 an hour.

"Disney cares deeply about our cast members," the spokeswoman said on Wednesday. "We are proud to already offer some of the most competitive wages and comprehensive employee benefits in our industry."

The case is Grace et al v Walt Disney Co et al, California Superior Court, Orange County, No. 30-2019-01116850.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Daniel Wallis)