On Nov. 8, the Department of Justice announced that it was suing the Mississippi State Senate for discrimination against a Black former staff attorney who had worked in its Legislative Services Office (LSO).
According to the press release, the lawsuit alleges that the Senate paid Kristie Metcalfe half the rate as her white co-workers, which is a violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Per Assistant Attorney General Kirsten Clarke, “Discriminatory employment practices, like paying a Black employee less than their white colleagues for the same work, are not only unfair, they are unlawful,” Clarke said.
Clarke continued, “The Black employee at issue in this lawsuit was paid about half the salary of her white colleagues in violation of federal law. This lawsuit makes clear that race-based pay discrimination will not be tolerated in our economy. Our work to eliminate race-based pay disparities is about promoting compliance with the law and promoting equity and fairness for all workers.”
According to the Justice Department, Metcalfe was paid significantly less than every other attorney employed by the LSO, with the only difference between them being that she was Black and her co-workers were white.
Additionally, the press release notes that in the previous 34 years before Metcalfe was hired, the LSO only employed white attorneys in their office.
Per court documents, “Defendant (the Senate) paid Jeff Rosamond and Caryn Quilter $95,550 each, Larry Richardson $113,322, Bubba Neely $114,768, and Bob Davidson $121,800,” the complaint reads. “Defendant’s starting salary for Metcalfe was thus less than 60% of what it paid the next closest white attorneys even though the work Metcalfe was being hired to do was substantially the same as that of her white colleagues.”
According to The Hill, Metcalfe started working in the office at a well-below market rate of $55,000, which was significantly less than the white attorneys and was the lowest starting salary at the senate in 15 years.
Compounding this, the other attorneys in the office would receive raises in January 2012, but Metcalfe received none, and adding additional insult, a new employee with no previous experience was later hired and given a salary of $101,500, approximately $24,000 more than what Metcalfe was making at the time the employee was hired.
According to the Mississippi Clarion-Ledger, Metcalfe complained to the senate and demanded a raise, but was denied and left the senate shortly after, in 2019.
The Department of Justice is arguing that the senate’s discrimination against the plaintiff caused her unlawful emotional and financial damages and the lawsuit seeks for the senate to adopt policies which would preclude this from happening again as well as back pay for Metcalfe and compensation for the damages she has suffered.
The Clarion-Ledger attempted to reach Mississippi’s Republican Gov. Tate Reeves and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann’s offices, but neither responded to their requests for comment about the lawsuit.
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