ST. LOUIS – A former employee of a business and technology consulting company claims it violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by paying female workers less than male workers.
Tamara O'Reilly filed a proposed class action suit against Daugherty Systems Inc. of St. Louis on Aug. 3 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.
O'Reilly, represented by Matthew J. Ghio of St. Louis, claims that before she left the firm, she was made to understand that a male counterpart was making a $250,000 salary with an incentive plan of $150,000, while her compensation plan was a $200,000 salary with a potential $100,000 incentive plan for "acting in the same role and client," the complaint states.
She claims that she left the company after working there from March 2014 to Nov. 30, 2017, in part because she was compensated less than a male counterpart.
"Defendant’s pay of its female consultants was a frequent complaint of at least some of defendant’s female consultants, including plaintiff, yet defendant continued to pay female consultants much less than its male consultants," the suit states.
"Defendant discriminated against its female consultants and support staff by providing them with lower pay than similarly situated male consultants and support staff even though female consultants and support staff perform similar duties requiring the same skill, effort, and responsibility of comparable male consultants," according to the suit.
O'Reilly claims that when she first became an engagement manager with Express-Scripts International she was able to "un-seat Accenture, a competitor, enabling Daugherty to be a preferred partner for the ESI TriCare contract renewal, an accomplishment that exceeded any of what her male counterparts had been able to do."
Her proposed collective action seeks to represent all of the female consultants and employees Daugherty who were paid less than male employees.
"The systemic gender discrimination described above has been, and is, continuing in nature," the suit states.
According to the complaint, Daugherty has more than 500 consultants with offices in St. Louis, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas and Minneapolis, and overall employs more than 700. Its principal place of business is in St. Louis.