The Justice Department filed a lawsuit on Friday against the Mississippi State Senate, alleging a former Black staff attorney was paid about half the salary of her white colleagues during her eight-year tenure.
Kristie Metcalfe – the first attorney of color the state Senate had hired in more than three decades – performed the same legislative duties as her colleagues but was consistently paid $40,000 to $60,000 less than the lowest-salaried white attorney, according to the federal complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi.
Prosecutors allege the state Senate violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a federal statute that prohibits racial discrimination in compensation and other forms of employment discrimination on the basis of sex, race, color, national origin or religion.
“Discriminatory employment practices, like paying a Black employee less than their white colleagues for the same work, are not only unfair, they are unlawful,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “This lawsuit makes clear that race-based pay discrimination will not be tolerated in our economy.”