Gender Discrimination - Pay Rates
I was hired in July, 2002 by a company out of LA. I'm a 22 year old female college graduate w/ 4 yrs experience. My pay rate is $11/hour.
A 20 year old male with no college degree and 2 years experience was hired three months after me and is being paid $11.50/hour.
I realize I'm an at will employee, but this seems a bit ridiculous. I know $.50/hour doesn't seem like much, but we work quite a bit of overtime.
Anyway, do I have a case? There is another female in my exact same position. Should we act together? Our company has fought labor suits before, so they would probably settle. How long could this take? What would be the benefits of filing suit?
Thank you!
Answers (1)
Both Ohio and federal law require an employer to pay opposite sexes equally for "substantially equal" work. So long as you are performing substantially equal work as your male counterpart, you and your female co-worker have a classic equal pay claim. Under this claim you would be able to recover the difference in wages ($1,000 a year) plus your attorneys' fees.
If you have not been working there long you will not have much to recover. It therefore probably does not make much sense to hire an attorney to pursue a lawsuit. Further, most attorneys would not see enough to recover to make a contingency fee arrangement worthwhile. I therefore suggest that you make a professional presentation to the company asking for an adjustment (it is unlawful to adust the male down, by the way). If that does not work, you can file a complaint with the equal employment opportunity commission. If neither of those works, email me with the company's position (i.e., its stated reason for the pay difference) and we can discuss it further.
Best regards,
Neil.
posted by Neil Klingshirn | Nov 26, 2002 09:04 AM [EST]
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