Nov. 8 (UPI) — A Black attorney who formerly worked on the staff of the Republican-controlled Mississippi State Senate was the target of illegal racial discrimination, the Department of Justice alleged Friday.
In a complaint filed Friday in the Southern District of Mississippi, federal prosecutors alleged that Kristie Metcalfe was paid “significantly less” than every other staff attorney in the Senate’s Legislative Services Office — all of whom are White — despite having essentially the same responsibilities.
Metcalfe was the first non-White attorney hired by the LSO in 34 years, the DOJ said. Staffers’ duties include legal services such as drafting bills for use by all members of the Senate.
“Discriminatory employment practices, like paying a Black employee less than their White colleagues for the same work, are not only unfair, they are unlawful,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement .
“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,” she added.