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Written By Digital Content Editor Thomas Ahearn
On August 11, 2022, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed a lawsuit charging an owner of gaming parlors in Illinois with allegedly violating civil rights law by paying female district managers lower wages than male district managers on the basis of sex, according to a press release from the EEOC.
“According to EEOC’s lawsuit, female district managers were paid less than their male coworkers since at least March 2018. Several female district managers had similar or more experience and education than their male colleagues, but made between $6,000 and $16,500 less in annual salary,” the press release stated.
The alleged conduct violates the Equal Pay Act of 1963 (EPA) and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1966 (Title VII), which prohibit pay discrimination based on sex. The EEOC filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process.
The EEOC is seeking back pay, liquidated damages, the elimination of the pay disparities, and other injunctive relief to correct and prevent future pay discrimination. For more information on equal pay and compensation discrimination, please visit https://www.eeoc.gov/equal-paycompensation-discrimination.
“Employers are required to pay male and female workers equally for equal work,” Gregory Gochanour, EEOC’s regional attorney in Chicago, Illinois, stated in the press release from the EEOC. “That is the law, and the EEOC will hold employers accountable if they don’t live up to that responsibility.”
In 2020, women earned 84 percent of what men earned, according to a Pew Research Center analysis, and women would have to work an extra 42 days to earn what men did in 2020 based on this estimate. As a result, laws prohibiting employers from asking about salary history have increased to narrow the gender pay gap.
“When an employer has a background screening firm perform past employment verifications as part of a background check on a job applicant, that screening firm needs to know which cities, counties, and states prohibit salary history questions, or else that employer could be fined or sued,” explains Attorney Lester Rosen.
Rosen is the founder of Employment Screening Resources (ESR), now a service offering of ClearStar, a leading Human Resources technology firm. ESR offers flexible and customizable employment verification solutions for employers that comply with equal pay and salary history laws. To learn more, contact ESR today.
NOTE: Employment Screening Resources (ESR) – a service offering of ClearStar – does not provide or offer legal services or legal advice of any kind or nature. Any information on this website is for educational purposes only.
© 2022 Employment Screening Resources (ESR) – A Service Offering of ClearStar – Making copies of or using any part of the ESR News Blog or ESR website for any purpose other than your own personal use is prohibited unless written authorization is first obtained from ESR.
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