Oakland Employment Law Blog

Employers in California can get into legal trouble if they are paying a female employee less than a male employee who performs the same type of work. That's because unequal pay for equal work is considered gender discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Recently, a federal appeals court concluded that there are other paths to sue for pay discrimination besides unequal pay for equal work.

In the case of Lenzi v. Systemax, Inc., et al., a woman who worked as a vice president executive claimed that she was paid less than male vice president executives at the same company. The case was originally dismissed, however, because the plaintiff could not show evidence that her duties were similar enough to the duties of the higher-paid male executives.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has announced that a man who complained about sexual harassment at a California fast-food restaurant will be paid $95,000 in damages and back pay. The federal agency filed a lawsuit on the man's behalf against Chipotle Mexican Grill in 2017. The Newport Beach-based chain has also agreed to hold anti-harassment training sessions at 27 restaurants in the San Jose area, according to the Dec. 3 announcement.

The man claimed in the sexual harassment lawsuit that the female general manager of a San Jose Chipotle restaurant groped him repeatedly and sent him photographs of herself clothed only in lingerie shortly after he was transferred to the location in April 2015. He was 22 years of age at the time of the alleged harassment. He says that he was hired by the fast-food chain after graduating from high school. The lawsuit suggests that the woman treated other male employees in the same way.

A survey by online company review site Glassdoor indicates that 61% of employees in California and across the country have experienced or witnessed discriminatory behavior in the workplace. The study included more than 1,100 employees and asked about discrimination that was based on gender, race, LGBTQ identification or age. Nationwide, 42% of those who responded said they had witnessed racism at work, and 45% said they'd witnessed discrimination based on age.

Breaking down the data further, male employees in the U.S. are more likely than female employees to experience or witness discrimination in the workplace. Fifty percent of the men who responded said they'd experienced or witnessed age discrimination, compared to 38% of women. Thirty-eight percent of men said they'd experienced or witnessed discrimination based on LGBTQ identification, compared to only 28% of women. Additionally, younger employees are more likely to have experiences of discriminatory behavior at work, with more than half of workers between 18 and 34 years old saying they've seen gender discrimination occur. For workers aged 55 years or older, that percentage was 29%.

The definition of sex discrimination has become a significant legal issue in California courts and those across the country. Many federal appeals courts have upheld an understanding of sex discrimination that also prohibits discriminating against LGBT workers on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. However, the Trump administration's Justice Department and other legal authorities disagree, and the Supreme Court is hearing several cases on the matter. However, traditional sex discrimination cases continue to reflect major problems experienced by women workers across the country.

High-profile sexual harassment cases in entertainment, politics and technology have drawn some attention to the hardships that women continue to face on the job despite decades of civil rights legislation and many significant cases upholding women's rights at work. However, women may face a wide range of issues that are not limited to unwanted sexual advances at work. Many of these claims never even reach a formal complaint, let alone go to court. Workers who are not represented often fear that they will be subject to retaliation if they complain, and their fears are far from unfounded. Those workers who do pursue claims need to confront changes to the legal process in the past 10 years that put more obstacles in front of employees fighting workplace discrimination.