ABERDEEN, Miss. — The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi, alleges a consumer loan and finance company is paying female branch managers less than their male co-workers for doing the same work.
According to the EEOC lawsuit against First Metropolitan Financial Services Inc., a female branch manager reported a pay disparity and questioned the company's compensation system without the complaint being addressed by the company. The compensation, the EEOC said, has allowed for female branch managers to be paid less than males for the same job since at least 2010, violating the Equal Pay Act and Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The pay disparities include branch managers from the company's branches throughout Tennessee and Mississippi.
"Enforcing laws that require equal pay for women and men performing the same jobs remains a priority for the EEOC," said EEOC Memphis District Office director Delner Franklin-Thomas in a statement. "Equal pay is about fairness for everyone. Although we have made great strides in narrowing the wage gap between men and women, this case demonstrates that pay discrimination remains a serious problem in the workplace.''
