Originally published by Tom Crane .
Well, I guess it is going to snow this coming July, or at least in March. The EEOC has found in favor of an employee. They have found evidence of discrimination. Finding in favor of the employee may not be as rare as snow in July, but it does approach the rarity of snow in March. Two employees of the Animal Care Services for the City of San Antonio filed claims saying they were paid less than male workers who preformed the same work.
Christine Peden and Jeanne Martinez filed claims based on the Equal Pay Act. The City responded that the salaries were based on a variety of factors. It said raises were limited to to 5% and that new hires would only receive minimum wage. But, later they admitted that on occasion, the City would make an exception. The City did make an exception for one male manager. The EEOC found that change in its response to amount to pretext. Even worse, the City disciplined the two women for discussing wages. They were counseled in writing for spreading “rumors, gossip” and helping create dissension. See San Antonio Express News report here (account required).
The thing about wage issues is workers cannot know what others make without engaging in some form of “gossip.” So, disciplining workers for engaging in such discussions is prohibited by a few statutes. It was exceedingly unwise for the manager to discipline them for discussing wage issues.
Equal Pay Act claims are notoriously difficult. See one of my prior posts about the EPA here. But, it looks like the City made a difficult case much easier for these two women.
Curated by Texas Bar Today. Follow us on Twitter @texasbartoday.
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