What is the Equal Pay Act?
The Equal Pay Act is a federal law aimed at abolishing wage disparity based on sex. One Texas woman, an assistant dean at Texas Southern University (TSU) for the past three decades, believes that her employer has violated the Equal Pay Act by refusing to match her salary to that of her male colleagues. Moreover, she claims that she has been paid less than male colleagues for upwards of a decade.
Her lawsuit accuses TSU of gender discrimination as well as retaliation, workplace harassment and hostility. She claims to have suffered several reprimands for poor job performance, reprimands that she believes were retaliatory in nature. Her performance, she says, was not the problem – she says she was punished for asking for a raise.
Under the terms of the Equal Pay Act, TSU has the opportunity to refute the woman’s claims by providing different reasoning for why this woman was paid less than her male coworkers. TSU can cite any differential besides sex – meaning they could easily blame her performance or cite a seniority system, a merit system or any kind of system that measures earnings by quantity or quality. Situations like these can make it very complicated for victims of discrimination to receive their full rewards for their suffering. If you believe you are earning less money than your peers because of your gender, talk to a skilled employment law attorney.
Atkerson Law – Dallas Employment Attorney