Employers often place employees on paid administrative leave while they investigate accusations of employee misconduct or make decisions regarding the employees’ employment. Traditionally, most federal courts agreed that this practice, without more, did not constitute an “adverse employment action” under Title VII.[1] But some courts have recently recognized that paid administrative leave might, in some cases, give rise to liability. A catalyst for this shift appears to be the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Muldrow v. City of St. Louis, Missouri.[2]
As we wrote earlier this year, Muldrow involved a police officer’s claim that the city subjected her to a discriminatory job transfer based on gender. The lower courts held that, because the transfer did not result in a diminution in the officer’s title, salary, or benefits, it did not cause a “material employment disadvantage” and was thus “insufficient” to support her Title VII discrimination claim.[3] But the U.S. Supreme Court disagreed and held that to establish a Title VII discrimination claim based on a job transfer, an employee does not have to show that the harm from the transfer is significant “[o]r serious, or substantial, or any similar adjective.”[4] Rather, the employee need only prove that the transfer left them “worse off.”
Although Muldrow was a case about an alleged discriminatory job transfer, several courts have recently relied on it to undercut long-held beliefs about paid suspensions. The U.S....
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