Sexism in the workplace: fact or fiction?

No Girls Allowed

According to the Human Rights Campaign, one of America's largest civil rights organization, 60 percent of Fortune 100 companies include non-discrimination policies that cover gender identity or expression.

For HRC, working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality, gender identity and expression refers to a person's innate, deeply felt psychological identification as male or female; while in law and policy terms, "gender identity" is often defined - or at least understood - to include an individual's gender expression.

Therefore, for the sake of argument, we can assume that gender identity covers everything: from homosexuality, to heterosexuality, to transgenders, to plain and simple man and woman.

Diversity

As all HR managers across the country know, workplace diversity is the key the success. Almost all of the top companies in Fortune's 100 Best Places to Work For list for this year boast tales of "diverse workforces" hoping to be "inclusive" and "representative" of the areas in the respective organization work.

But, if Corporate America really want to boast equality across the board, contrasting reports suggest there is still some way to go.

According to reports from Pennsylvania this week, a grants coordinator, who asked for a raise three and a half years after joining her company - and again a year after that - and found that neither request drew a response, has now filed a complaint of pay discrimination under the Equal Pay Act.

The worker, a female who joined her County Police Department with the title of grants coordinator in 2001, first believed she might being undervalued after learning that a make colleague with the title of fiscal manager was earning $7000 more than her each year.

In 2004 she formally requested a title change to grants and projects manager, in addition to being paid the same as or more than the fiscal manager. She got no response. A year later, she made the same request. Again, she heard nothing.

According to the reports, by 2006 she had complained to the county's HR department and filed suit in federal court. A whole five months then passed before HR asserted that the worker was being paid fairly for her work and that there was no discrimination. She added a charge of violation of federal civil rights law to her lawsuit.

The Ledbetter Fair Pay Act

Between filing the suit and the court hearing the plaintiff's case, Congress passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which was retroactive to all cases that were pending on or after May 28, 2007 - which would include hers. The Ledbetter Fair Pay Act names each paycheck emanating from an earlier discriminatory pay decision as a new discriminatory act, which provides plaintiffs with more time to discover their salary discrepancy and go to court.

In this case, appellate judges ruled that the county's failures to respond in 2004 and 2005 were forms of denying her a raise, which might have been discriminatory. Her suit can now go forward.

While this particular case is just a drop in the ocean of Corporate America's equality bubble, it stands to highlight that cases like this do still exist. While organizations like the HRC are fighting to make equality all the more a reality, the fictional idea that Corporate America is already an equality-driven place needs a radical rethinking.

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