Women file suit over pay in public defender’s office

Legal agency latest to face gender wage discrimination charges

The Law Offices of the Public Defender is the latest public agency accused of paying female employees less than men holding the same positions.

A district defender, two managing attorneys and two investigators filed a lawsuit in state District Court on Friday alleging violations of the Fair Pay for Women Act.

The women say a gender equity study conducted in February found pay discrimination against all women employees of the LOPD. The lawsuit says that study found that male employees make about $6.36 more per hour than women.

Despite those findings, they argue, the office and Chief Public Defender Bennett Baur have failed to take steps to stop the disparity.

“I just find it particularly egregious that the agency that is supposed to represent the poor and the downtrodden does not do everything within its power to make sure its own employees are treated fairly and without regard to bias,” said attorney Steven Sanders, who is representing the women.

Baur said Wednesday he had not yet had a chance to review the lawsuit.

“We try very hard to treat each employee fairly and equitably,” Baur said in an emailed statement. “In each salary decision, qualifications, experience, and tenure with the Department are taken into consideration. If someone feels they have not been treated fairly, we will a take another look at their complaint.”

District Defender Deirdre Ewing; managing attorneys, Heather LeBlanc and Jennifer Barela; along with senior investigators Angela White and Tanya Dickinson are requesting damages for wages they missed out on over the past six years.

White and Dickinson make $14,508 less each year than the average man doing the same job, according to the lawsuit. Female managing attorneys on average

make $2.18 less per hour than male managing attorneys. And Ewing makes $3,734 less each year than the average male district defender.

The lawsuit alleges LOPD failed to remedy the issue, even though the department had nearly $400,000 left over in the 2016-17 fiscal year, which was ultimately reverted to the state. Sanders said that money would have gone a long way toward repairing the pay gap.

“We all understand when an inequity gets into the system, it takes money to correct it. And frequently we hear our state agencies say, ‘Oh, we just don’t have any money,’” he said. “But I know from reviewing the records that they did have the money at the end of the 2017 fiscal year.”

In recent months, women employees of both the city of Albuquerque and the University of New Mexico have filed similar lawsuits.

“I think people are maybe becoming more sensitized to what’s going on in our country,” Sanders said. “And I think that women, rightfully so, are becoming a little more willing to take on the establishment, and take on their employer.”