The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has sued the Houston Independent School District (HISD), accusing the district of violating federal law by paying female senior Career and Technical Education program specialists lower wages than their male counterparts since February 2019.
“The EEOC is fully and absolutely committed to ensuring that gender is not factored into compensation and that employees receive equal pay for equal work.”
eeoc district director rayford irvin
The staffers performed substantially equal work that required equal skill, effort, responsibility and under similar working conditions. However, the female specialists were discriminated against based on their sex, EEOC wrote in its statement.
The Defender reached out to HISD for a comment on the ongoing matter.
“HISD does not have a comment on the pending litigation,” was their response.
“Equal pay for equal work – it’s a simple premise and important legal obligation,” said Rudy Sustaita, the EEOC’s regional attorney in Houston. “The EEOC will hold employers accountable when they violate this obligation.”
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas in Houston. EEOC had also attempted to reach a pre-litigation settlement through the conciliation process with HISD before filing the lawsuit.
What does the lawsuit say?
The EEOC lawsuit focuses on starting salaries. HISD’s compensation manual states a 2.5% pay increase over the starting salary for each year of related work experience. The lawsuit says HISD implemented a “stringent interpretation” of its manual for female senior CTE program specialists, prohibiting them from qualifying for a higher starting salary based on their previous work experience.
On the other hand, their male counterparts were paid higher salaries for all types of work experience and sometimes had the same or lesser work experience as the female staffers, the lawsuit alleges.
These conducts violate the Equal Pay Act of 1963, prohibiting pay discrimination based on sex.
“A person’s gender should not – and must not – be a factor in determining her pay,” said N. Joseph Unruh, a trial attorney for the Houston District Office.
Nearly 75% out of 25,000 of HISD’s staffers were female during the 2022-23 school year, with 500 employees working in its CTE department.
There are 274 schools under HISD, with more than 190,000 students, a 90% minority enrollment, and 59.5% students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
What now?
The EEOC is seeking back pay, liquidated damages, the elimination of pay disparities, and other measures to prevent such forms of discrimination in the future.
“The EEOC is fully and absolutely committed to ensuring that gender is not factored into compensation and that employees receive equal pay for equal work,” said EEOC District Director Rayford Irvin.
What is equal pay/compensation discrimination?
The Equal Pay Act says men and women working in the same workplace be given equal pay for “substantially equal” work,” if not identical work. The content of the job determines if the job is “substantially equal.”
An individual alleging a violation of the EPA may go to court and is not required to file an EEOC charge beforehand. However, there is a time limit — “within two years of the alleged unlawful compensation practice or, in the case of a willful violation, within three years.”
