The Ministry of Justice On Friday, he filed a lawsuit against the Mississippi Senate, alleging discrimination Black worker paying him “significantly less” than his white colleagues for years.
The DOJ said the state Senate Office of Legal Services violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by paying a black attorney half the salary of his white peers.
The claim Kristie Metcalfe, who has since left her job, received significantly less compensation than her white counterparts. Before Metcalfe was hired, the office was staffed exclusively by white attorneys.
“Discriminatory employment practices, such as paying black workers less than their white counterparts for the same job, are not only unfair, they are illegal,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clark of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. news release friday
“In this lawsuit, the black employee in question was paid roughly half of what his white colleagues were paid, in violation of federal law. This lawsuit makes it clear that race-based pay discrimination will not be tolerated in our economy,” Clark said.
The lawsuit alleges discrimination against Metcalf began when she was hired in 2011 and continued for years. Metcalf’s starting salary was significantly lower than that of any attorney in the office in more than 30 years, and he did not receive a raise when his colleagues did, allegedly widening the gap between them.
Near the end of her tenure, in 2019, the office hired a white attorney with no prior legislative experience and similar legal experience and paid the new attorney a higher salary, the lawsuit said.
When Metcalfe confronted her employers and complained about the pay gap, she was not paid a comparable salary, the suit says. As a result, Metcalf resigned from his position.
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, a Republican who presided over the Senate as lieutenant governor from 2012 to 2020, and incumbent Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday night.
Metcalfe also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Justice Department said it is seeking back pay and compensatory damages for Metcalfe, “in addition to collateral and other appropriate relief.”