The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs has filed a lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase & Co for paying a class of 93 female employees lower than their male counterparts in various professional positions (e.g., Application Developer Lead II, Application Developer Lead V, Project Manager, and Technology Director) within its Investment Bank, Technology & Market Strategies unit. OFCCP stated that they identified sex-based compensation disparities despite accounting for legitimate factors affecting pay differences. The lawsuit alleges that JPMorgan compensation policies and practices violated Executive Order 11246 which prohibits discrimination in pay based on sex, and that the company failed to perform a required evaluation of their compensation systems.
Prior to filing this lawsuit, OFCCP’s attempts to gain voluntary agreement from JPMorgan to take corrective action were unsuccessful. This case has been filed with the Department of Labor’s Office of Administrative Law Judges (ALJ). The complaint seeks compensatory relief to the affected class, including lost pay, interest, salary adjustments and all other lost benefits of employment. If found by the ALJ to have violated Executive Order 11246 requirements, JPMorgan faces the threat of cancellation of its current federal contracts and debarment of future contracts until it provides relief to those affected.
Stay tuned to know how this case progresses.
By Vinaya Sakpal, HR Analyst, and Jeff Henderson, Associate Consultant, at DCI Consulting Group
