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PDFFrom NYLJ:
Allegations that women lawyers at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey are paid thousands of dollars less each year than men doing substantially equal work have been thrown out by a Manhattan federal judge.
Southern District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald (See Profile) dismissed a lawsuit on May 18 brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on behalf of 14 non-supervisory women lawyers in the agency’s in-house law department.
The suit, EEOC v. Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, 10. Civ. 7462, was brought under the Equal Pay Act of 1963, 29 U.S.C. §206(d)(1), following a three-year investigation by the commission. The case also alleged age discrimination under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.
Buchwald heard oral arguments on dispositive motions on the equal pay component of the lawsuit on April 24.
In her ruling, the judge said the EEOC’s complaint is “clearly insufficiently pleaded,” particularly its “conclusory allegation” that women in the law department are paid less than men.
“The only remotely substantive allegations are that the relevant attorneys ‘have substantially similar lengths of service and experience’ and ‘hav[e] the same job code,'” Buchwald said. “These allegations do not speak at all to the effort or responsibility required of the jobs, and they mention the requisite skill only cursorily. Without more, they are insufficient to meet the plausibility and fair notice standard.”
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