Possible Retaliation via Pay Discrimination?

[DavianThule]

What is the name of your state? California.

I am a male coach at a college in California and have been a part of the team for 7 years. Everyone's pay is listed online. Pay has ranged from $10-$15/hr over the years for all coaches of all experience levels and degrees. Last year something changed. The head coach of the team hired his female ex-lover at a higher rate than "normal" and my rate went down. I was not told my pay decreased. Despite having the same "Short-term employee" classification that the rest of us had, she not only got paid more but was treated differently.

She was paid for just "talking" about the team. Yet my 3-hour long conversations with the head coach never got me paid. She didn't have to show up on time, didn't have to be in our group chat, didn't have to go to our coaches meetings, didn't have to go to tournaments and a lot more. The director would often leave campus to get her coffee in the middle of class.

This sparked a big investigation and I was called in by the school to explain to them my experience with all of this. This puts me under whistleblower protection and the ex-lover was fired. This year the head-coach doesn't look at me, he looks around me, and doesn't respond to me in our group chat.

He hired a new female coach this year at more than double my pay and it's even more than the ex-lover made. This new female coach has significantly less experience than I do, but does have a Masters vs my Bachelors+experience. We do 100% the same coaching job, but I actually do much more. Logistics, administration, photography, videopgraphy on top of coaching.

If all of the non-sense last year didn't happen, I would confront him about a pay raise and the unequal pay. But considering this is a delicate situation I want some advice before taking action. The head coach has been deciding pay for years but it's actually not his job to do so. The school just hasn't paid attention until now.

Job tasks I've done for years have been taken away from me this year. I have a feeling the head-coach is retaliating against me by taking away my duties and ability to make money. Our budget is suddenly tight because she is making so much money. I feel like he is paying her so much so he has an excuse to penalize me.

What do I do? I'm in the process of gathering all of my time-sheets to compare them to my pay stubs. Is this an equal pay issue? Pay discrimination? Anything?

 

[Taxing Matters]

If the reason he's paying her more than you is because she's a woman then it is illegal discrimination. If it is because of the master's degree or something else, then it likely is not. The reason behind it really matters.

 

[DavianThule]

If the reason he's paying her more than you is because she's a woman then it is illegal discrimination. If it is because of the master's degree or something else, then it likely is not. The reason behind it really matters.

How would one find that out? The highest-paid coaches have both been female. Not even the right-hand man with 10+yrs of experience made anywhere near what these two other female coaches made, despite him having significantly more experience in every way shape and form.

 

[cbg]

And you have personally seen their resumes, qualifications, references, etc?

 

[DavianThule]

And you have personally seen their resumes, qualifications, references, etc?

Yes, actually. On top of seeing that, I am also on good terms with these people and we have discussed this a lot. I asked the new coach, whom I've coached with many years ago, if her master's degree helps her in this job and she said it has no bearing and doesn't help her perform the work.

 

[cbg]

And you have also seen the resumes, qualifications, references and so on of ALL the candidates who were not hired?

You are familiar with the term, Market Compression?

 

[DavianThule]

And you have also seen the resumes, qualifications, references and so on of ALL the candidates who were not hired?

You are familiar with the term, Market Compression?

There are no other applicants. This is not like a typical work arrangement. There are no job descriptions, no job posting, no hiring committee, nothing. The head coach usually hires previous competitors on the team and makes them coaches. The school hasen't been monitoring him all of these years so he hires whoever he wants and pays them whatever he wants without any rhyme or reason for the pay. You could say it's the wild west. But when everything exploded last year because he hired his ex, gave her special treatment, and it made all the students uncomfortable, the program is now under scrutiny and investigation.

A few weeks ago my actual boss, who I didn't know was my actual boss for all these years, told me to write job descriptions for everyone. And that's what I did. But it's been weeks and I haven't heard back from him. But he did tell me that he would need some time and that structure will be brought to this.

 

[Taxing Matters]

How would one find that out? The highest-paid coaches have both been female. Not even the right-hand man with 10+yrs of experience made anywhere near what these two other female coaches made, despite him having significantly more experience in every way shape and form.

It's not easy to prove that the reason was because they were women and not some other reason, absent an admission from the person who did the hiring. Two things to point out. First, the first female coach hired was the ex-lover of the head coach. It's not hard to think that the reason she was hired was because of that lover relationship, which he perhaps hoped to reignite. It's not illegal to hire someone or pay them more because you have a personal history with that person. Hiring friends, relatives, and lovers happens all the time, and it is not unusual for those persons to get better treatment than other employees. It is not necessarily a good business practice and some companies and institutions prohibit at least the hiring of relatives (nepotism), but for the most part it is not illegal.

The second woman hired was the last coach hired. She has a master's degree which, even if it does not directly relate to her coaching duties, may still impact her qualifications because more advanced education generally suggests that the candidate is intelligent and an achiever. Even without that, there is the problem that more recently hired people tend to get paid more than people who have been with the employer a long time. Existing employees often do not press their employers for raises that would keep their salaries competitive with new hires. But to get a new hire, an employer must offer a competitive salary/wage or no good candidate will take the job. This leaves a situation in which well qualified long term employees of the employer end up getting paid less than someone newly hired into the same job. It's very frustrating for those long term employees because it smacks of disloyalty by the employer. Yet that's how business functions. This is why if you want higher pay you have to sometimes leave that position you've had for years and look for work elsewhere. Then when you get hired by a new employer you get the benefit of the higher competitive pay for that occupation. If you are a good employee that your present employer really wants to keep, it might even match or beat the offer from the new employer.

The point here being that there are lots of reasons why she was hired and why she is getting paid more. They might not be good business reasons, but if the reason is something other than her sex or other protected characteristic it is not illegal. Proving that the real reason is that she is a woman will likely be difficult.

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

I asked the new coach, whom I've coached with many years ago, if her master's degree helps her in this job and she said it has no bearing and doesn't help her perform the work.

That isn't a call the employee gets to make. If she has a master's and you don't I don't see you winning a discrimination suit.

 

[commentator]

Also, I don't think you have garnered any sort of whistleblower protection from your involvement in the situation last year. And of course, that situation, which was, according to appearances, "fixed" after the investigation will not be a factor in this new issue with the newly hired person, should you decide to try an EEOC complaint about it. Bringing your pay up to what the ex-girlfriend was paid wasn't required to fix that situation. She is gone. You are still there, working at the pay rate you agreed to accept when you accepted the job. The head coach now can't stand you, won't look at you or address you on company group chats. But there's really nothing about that that is illegal.

Now he has hired a co worker for you. She (happens to be female) is paid more than you, has less exacting job duties than you, has less experience than you. But she does have more educational qualifications than you. Have you spoken with anyone yet regarding your pay rate, the perceived unfairness of the situation as it is now? When you do discuss it with anyone higher up, be careful not to be threatening or mention illegal discrimination, because if they know anything at all pertaining to the issue, they will not be intimidated by your threats. But you won't get anywhere without making someone aware that you think your situation requires that you should be paid more. Check out the excellent explanation of "salary compression" that is above.

Best advice I would provide is that, having spoken with people about your lack of fair pay, tried to deal with it through your legitimate channels, you seek work elsewhere. You almost never can fix a bad workplace, and you have got a situation where, unless the head coach leaves, will not likely be fixed and might get worse. "Short term employees" which is how you describe your position, are notoriously overworked and underpaid. Most people sincerely believe they have a lot more rights and protections on the job than they do.