I want to share my story because I often see commenters here suggest workers sue their employers. This story is not to discourage you from trying that route, just a window into what that entailed for me when I, an economically privileged person with every advantage and the right documentation, sued a major corporation for discrimination due to pregnancy.
I worked for a large chain department store from 2004-2009. I entered as a sales floor employee, was promoted to team manager in 2006, then promoted to regional team manager in 2007. I lived in San Francisco and covered the Northern California region. A couple months into that promotion they added sales training to my role, which meant I trained the sales floor teams at 40+ locations that carried our brand. I got no pay increase for the additional duties, it just took my support away from my local teams more often. I loved my job and enthusiastically bought into our “family” culture, so it never even occur to me to ask for more.
As we know, the economic crash tanked retail in 2008. In early 2009 I became pregnant. My fiancé lived in the Seattle area at the time, which is where I’m originally from. We had planned on him moving in with me since I made more money than he did. 4 months into my pregnancy I was informed that my position was being eliminated from the corporate hierarchy. I was not alone – there were 3000 other people doing this job nationwide who were told the same thing.
I was given the option to step back down to a team manager role, but only if I was willing to move back to Seattle at my own expense and accept the highest tier compensation for that role. This meant I would go from a $75k salary to $23/hourly.
I was told Seattle was the only option because all the California roles were filled. Plus they were bringing my brand to the Seattle store, so I would be the perfect person to launch it. Unfortunately, since the brand was not expected to launch until 3 months after I would arrive, I would actually need to bide my time in an entry level sales role with another brand, so my pay would actually be reduced to $17/hr until the launch. I was told it was that or be laid off.
I needed the medical benefits. My fiancé was self-employed and this was before the Affordable Care Act, so with a baby on the way I agreed. I told them I wanted a formal proposal in writing guaranteeing that the team management position was mine. Went back and forth with HR while making my moving arrangements and never did get that letter. On advice from my father, an attorney for 50 years, I did start printing the email chain between myself, my direct superior, and HR proving that this was their offer.
When I arrived in Seattle one of the first things the department manager asked was when I was due to deliver my child. It turned out my due date would coincide with a major annual sales event, one that is a huge money maker for that department. I assured him that I would use the 3 months prior to the event training my sales team to be prepared, but his annoyance was concerning enough that I went back to HR to tell them so and asked again for a letter stating the team management role was mine. I was told they’d write up. They never did.
By that time I was 7 months pregnant and had been doing the sales job for 2 months. They began cutting my hours. I went from 40 to 32. At 31 you are considered part time and lose your medical benefits. Then the department manager informed they couldn’t support my position and I would need to switch to a different store until the brand launch. I agreed even though it increased my commute time. Within a few weeks in the HR manager came to me and said more cuts were being made and I had two options – accept 12 hours a week or resign. I said absolutely not. You can either give me the role I was promised or lay me off. So after 5 years with a stellar record, they let me go.
Upon being let go you have one week to continue using your employee discount. So I went to the store where my brand was supposed to launch to get my then-husband a pair of shoes with my 20% off. I specifically went to that location so I could inform the saleswoman who was set to work for me when the brand launched that I had been let go and could no longer be her point of contact on the progress. She was in her early 20’s and had been on the job for less than a year. She said “oh I know, they gave me the management job. We launch in two weeks.”
Now, what my former employer did not know is that my father had been prepping me for this (killer instincts) and knew immediately what to do and which buddies of his to call. Within a week I was meeting with the best employment law attorney in the area and they took on my case with contingency. If/when we settled I would see roughly 30% of what we got.
There was an arbitration clause in the employment contract I signed in 2004. Very common. This meant the process would entail submitting all the necessary paperwork along with my mountain of evidence to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), then meet with their investigator and mediator. Then an Arbiter would make the final decision.
It took 11 months before mediation began. By then I had welcomed our son and spent most of 2009/2010 unemployed. Thankfully I was getting unemployment benefits and SNAP benefits to help us stay afloat. I would apply for 20-30 jobs a week, but was constantly told I was overqualified. They wouldn’t have paid me enough to cover the cost of childcare anyway. It was a deeply humbling experience.
In the end, the EEOC mediator told me I had a very strong case. I had excellent performance records and no issues with attendance. I was a model employee. However, the department manager claimed that he simply didn’t like my personality and that’s why he chose the other woman for the role. That’s what Right To Work allows for. The mediator admitted to me that it is VERY hard to prove that it was solely discrimination and not just a personality clash.
The arbiter decided discrimination could not be proven one way or the other. I was awarded a settlement of one year’s worth of my last highest salary, so $75k. But to receive it I had to sign a contract saying that they were not admitting wrongdoing, that I could not work for any third party brands related to their store (effectively blacklisting me from my only professional contacts), and that if I ever spoke about this to the media, in social media, or to current employees I could be fined $5k for every instance.
After my attorney took his cut I was left with $22,500. That’s what all the effort and stress of that year earned me. A year when I could have been completely focused on new motherhood.
So that’s what suing them can look like in the best of circumstances. That’s what it was worth.I was paid $22.5k in exchange for the loss of my free speech and being blacklisted from my industry. Go ahead and sue if you really want to, but sometimes I wish I hadn’t bothered. What I wanted way more than money was to impact their policies, and maybe I could have I had shared my story on social media instead of suing.
If you read this far, thanks for listening. Here hoping I don’t get threatened with a $5k fine after all this time.