EEOC Settles Pay Discrimination Lawsuit Alleging Female Nurses Were Paid Less Than Males
On December 2, 2020, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued a press release announcing that it has entered into a Consent Decree settling a sex-based pay discrimination lawsuit against Edgewood Manor OPCO, LLC (Edgewood Manor). On September 19, 2019, the EEOC filed the case, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Edgewood Manor OPCO, LLC,Case No. 4:19-cv-760, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri. Before filing the lawsuit, the EEOC first tried to obtain a pre-litigation settlement through its voluntary conciliation process. Unable to settle the case through voluntary conciliation efforts, the EEOC exercised its statutory right to remedy the alleged discriminatory employment practices through litigation.
In the Consent Decree, which was endorsed by U.S. District Court Judge Gary A. Fenner on December 1, 2020, Edgewood Manor agreed to pay $40,000 to resolve the sex-based pay discrimination lawsuit. In this article, our Ocala, Florida lawyers for sex-based pay discrimination explain the EEOC’s allegations of unequal pay against Edgewood Manor.
Laws Against Pay Discrimination
The EEOC filed the sex-based discrimination lawsuit pursuant to the Equal Pay Act (EPA) and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII) on behalf of female licensed practical nurses (LPNs) working at Edgewood Manor. Under the EPA and Title VII, employers are prohibited from paying women less than men for doing a job with the same required skill, effort, responsibility, and working conditions. The EPA’s prohibition against sex discrimination is more limited in scope than Title VII. The EPA is restricted to sex-based discrimination in compensation and does not prohibit sex-based discrimination with respect to other aspects of employment. In contrast, Title VII forbids sex-based discrimination in all aspects of employment, including compensation, hiring, promotion, discipline, and discharge. The EEOC claims that Edgewood Manor violated the EPA and Title VII by paying female LPNs less than it paid male LPNs.
EEOC Claims Unequal Pay
Edgewood Manor is a skilled nursing facility in Raytown, Missouri. The EEOC alleges that Maisha Hill (Hill) and other female LPNs working at Edgewood Manor were unlawfully paid less than male LPNs. Hill was employed as an LPN at Edgewood Manor from March 2017 until July 28, 2019. Hill had almost three years of experience as an LPN when she began working at Edgewood Manor. Edgewood Manor paid Hill $21 per hour with a fifty cent shift differential for night shift work. In contrast to Hill’s compensation, Edgewood Manor paid three male LPNs $25 per hour, another male LPN $26.50 her hour, and another male LPN $27 per hour.
In March 2019, Hill filed a charge of discrimination with the the EEOC alleging sex-based pay discrimination. During the EEOC’s investigation of Hill’s charge of discrimination, the HR/Payroll Manager for Edgewood Manor told the EEOC that Hill should have been paid $25 per hour when she was hired by Edgewood Manor. The HR/Payroll Manager also told the EEOC that from May 8, 2017 to March 2, 2019, Hill worked more than 2820 hours and should have been paid $4 more per hour. During the same period, according to the EEOC, Hill worked 119 hours of overtime and should have been paid at time-and-a-half. Ultimately, Edgewood Manor increased Hill’s pay to $25 per hour on March 3, 2019.
Attorneys For Pay Discrimination
The EEOC is the administrative agency of the United States responsible for interpreting and enforcing federal labor laws which make discrimination, harassment, and retaliation unlawful employment practices. As part of its enforcement of employee rights under the federal labor laws, the EEOC brings lawsuits on behalf of employment discrimination victims, including unequal pay victims. In a press release issued by the EEOC on December 2, 2020 regarding the case, a Regional Attorney for the EEOC’s St. Louis District Office, Andrea G. Baron, stated that “equal pay for equal work is a straightforward principle that has been the law for almost 60 years.” “Employers cannot pay women less than men,” Ms. Baron explained, “for doing the same job.” In commenting on the case, the Director of the EEOC’s St. Louis District Office, Jack Vasquez, Jr., stated that “women continue to face barriers to equal pay” and that the “EEOC will vigorously enforce the EPA until pay discrimination based on sex is a thing of the past.”
Ocala, FL Lawyers For Pay Discrimination Victims
Based in Ocala, Florida and representing employees throughout Central Florida, our Marion County, Florida attorneys for sex-based pay discrimination have litigated employment and labor law cases in Florida courts for more than twenty years. If you been paid less than men for doing the same job or have questions about your right to equal pay for equal work under the federal anti-discrimination laws, please contact our office for a free consultation with our Ocala, Florida lawyers sex-based pay discrimination. Our employment and labor law attorneys take employment discrimination cases on a contingency fee basis. This means that there are no attorney’s fees incurred unless there is a recovery and our attorney’s fees come solely from the monetary award that you recover.