Takeaway: An employer’s swift, even-handed response to an employee’s internal claims of sex discrimination in compensation is one of its surest defenses to potential lawsuits. In this case, the human resources director acted quickly to reassure the employee that she had not acted improperly, and the manager apologized for her misstatement. Most importantly, the CEO launched an internal investigation of corporate compensation policies to ensure the company wasn’t engaged in discriminatory practices.
A female marketing employee claiming sex-based wage discrimination and retaliation failed to show that she or any of her female marketing department co-workers had job responsibilities or experience similar to that of their more highly paid male co-worker, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled. The court noted HR’s responsiveness in addressing the worker’s allegations when they were brought up internally.
A shoe distributor had hired the plaintiff as content marketing coordinator in 2016 at a salary of $39,000. The employer was short-handed at the time the plaintiff was hired, so she handled some graphic design responsibilities until 2018. At that time, she was given the title of graphic designer.
Soon after, the company hired an experienced male graphic designer for $68,000. The plaintiff asked for a pay raise but was rebuffed and given a new title: senior photographer and PR specialist.
Her manager, after creating a “local industry standard” for pay based on publicly...
Renowned human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, has criticised President Bola Tinubu for relying on claims by United States President Donald Trump regarding the reported killing of senior Islamic ...