Tiburcio Vasquez Health Center, a non-profit medical center with 15 health centers and clinics through southern Alameda County, has agreed to provide $195,000 to three female employees and other injunctive relief following an investigation by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency announced. In July 2023, a female physician assistant filed an EEOC charge of discrimination alleging that she was consistently paid at a lower rate of pay than a male nurse practitioner, despite the fact that he had no prior experience as a nurse practitioner. The EEOC’s investigation found reasonable cause to establish that from approximately April 2022 through August 2023, she and two other women were paid less than the male employee for performing substantially equal job duties. Such alleged conduct violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits compensation discrimination on the basis of sex, as well as the Equal Pay Act of 1963, which requires employers to pay equal wages to women and men who perform jobs that require substantially equal skill, effort and responsibility performed under similar working conditions within the same establishment.
