The Department of Justice sued the Mississippi Senate on Friday, alleging that it discriminated in opposition to a Black worker for years by paying her “considerably much less” than her white colleagues.
The DOJ stated the state Senate’s Legal Services Office paid a Black workers legal professional about half the wage of her white friends, in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The lawsuit stated Kristie Metcalfe, who has since left her job, obtained compensation nicely under that of her white co-workers. Before Metcalfe’s hiring, the workplace had solely employed white attorneys.
“Discriminatory employment practices, like paying a Black worker lower than their white colleagues for a similar work, usually are not solely unfair, they’re illegal,” stated Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division in a information launch Friday.
“The Black worker at difficulty on this lawsuit was paid about half the wage of her white colleagues in violation of federal regulation. This lawsuit makes clear that race-based pay discrimination is not going to be tolerated in our financial system,” Clarke added.
The go well with stated the discrimination in opposition to Metcalfe started when she was employed in 2011 and continued for years. Metcalfe’s preliminary wage was considerably decrease than that of any legal professional inside the workplace in over 30 years, and he or she didn’t obtain pay will increase when her colleagues did, widening the hole between them, in keeping with the go well with.
Near the tip of her employment, in 2019, the workplace employed a white legal professional with no earlier legislative expertise and the same variety of years of authorized expertise, awarding the brand new legal professional a better wage, the lawsuit stated.
When Metcalfe confronted her employers and complained in regards to the pay disparity, she was denied comparable pay, the go well with stated. As a outcome, Metcalfe resigned from her place.
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, a Republican who presided over the Senate as lieutenant governor from 2012 to 2020, and present Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark Friday evening.
Metcalfe didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark both.
The Justice Department stated it’s in search of again pay and compensatory damages for Metcalfe, “along with injunctive and different applicable aid.”