gender discrimination

[xgzx]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Ohio

I am posting on behalf of my wife. She has worked as a salesperson for the same company for 11 years. It is a small company, only 3 dedicated salespeople, a few sales assistants, and the owners. Recently, the newest salesperson, a male that has worked there 2 years and was partially trained by my wife, convinced the owners to give him a promotion to sales manager, a position that never existed before, unless you count one of the owners filling the position. This was done on the sly, my wife was never offered the position or knew about what was happening until the announcement was made, on my wife's day off. Her sales record with the company is excellent, she received an award 3 years ago for the highest monthly sales in company history, 3 months in a row that year, and has never had any negative feedback from ownership.
To make matters worse, this new position of sales manager now gives this person monetary incentive off of my wife's sales. She has never received a raise in her base pay since day one, and her commission structure has been altered in the past to make it more difficult to make commission. On top of that, he is also keeping his original role of salesperson, and going to be in charge of dividing up any leads that come in, a conflict of interest at the least. So in a nutshell, after 2 years, he has received a promotion, gotten a pay raise linked to the sales that my wife makes, regardless of whether or not he can prove he helped her win the sale, has the opportunity to handpick his own leads, and never once was my wife made aware of this opportunity. His sales record is not the reason for the promotion, he did not make commission for more than a year since he was hired, my wife's sales were higher than his every month for the last 2 years except a couple of months recently. There is more, but I have touched on the main issues. I keep telling her she needs to talk to a lawyer about this, am I right?

 

[pattytx]

Unfortunately, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act only covers employees of employers with 15 or more employees.

IV. Which Employers and Other Entities Are Covered by These Laws?
Title VII, the ADA, and GINA cover all private employers, state and local governments, and education institutions that employ 15 or more individuals. These laws also cover private and public employment agencies, labor organizations, and joint labor management committees controlling apprenticeship and training.

Ohio appears to have its own gender discrimination laws, but I could not find any reference to how many employees an employer has to have to be subject.
[url=http://codes.ohio.gov/oac/4112-5-05[/url]

 

[cbg]

It takes more than the fact that the new manager is a man and your wife is a woman to make a gender discrimination claim. What EVIDENCE is there that the reason he was promoted and she was not, is either his or her gender? What EVIDENCE is there that, but for the fact that she is female, your wife would have been promoted?

For that matter, if it's that small a company, the whole issue may be moot. Are there a minimum of 15 employees overall?

 

[xgzx]

If you count the owners and their family members who are on payroll but also have a stake in the company, there are 16 employees. There are 11 non-family employees. As far as evidence, what should we look for? She has been passed over for opportunities to go to conventions, where a male was sent instead, and when she asked why she was not asked to go, they told her that they didn't think she would want to go because of our children; most of the conventions are 2 to 3 days long. It is obvious that seniority and experience are not the reasons that this person got the position, yet he was given the position and the potential for higher pay that comes with it. I can't think of any other reason that he would get the title over her.

 

[Banned_Princess]

He must be a better salesman... he sold himself really efficiently.

 

[cbg]

The way you have described this, there wasn't a new position until he talked the upper management into creating it for him. That's not discrimination; that's good salesmanship.

If your wife sincerely believes that the sole reason she was not promoted was due to her gender, she is free to discuss it with the EEOC or an employment attorney. However, based on your own description of the events, this is not even close to a slam dunk - it's questionable at best.

 

[commentator]

It costs nothing for her to talk to EEOC, though it is definitely not a slam dunk case. These little businesses like this are very likely to do this, its possible the owners just relate better to this person. And it is very hard to prove their lack of promotions for your wife is solely because she is a woman, of course they will try very hard to show she is not receiving them for some other reason.

If she talks to EEOC, she might rattle her employers' cage. This could lead to several different things.But ask yourself honestly, does she really want the job this man got, or does she just want a raise or a promotion and do be able to do her same job. Does she want to supervise, put in the time, all the new job involves.

If they were to ask her, "What could we do for you to make this right?" would she demand they fire this guy, demand they give her this new created job instead of him, or just ask that they commensurate her equally? It sounds as though the problem of her not getting raises and having low commissions is something she has in some way let them know was acceptable to her, since she's been there so long at this same rate. The new guy must have made them think he was worth keeping and worth promoting.

 

[FlyingRon]

Words have gender. Humans have sex.