Fired staffer scores one for women

A former legislative staffer won’t be getting all of the $1 million a jury wanted to award her given her treatment at the hands of state Senate Democrats.

Talonya Adams has, however, earned something far more valuable: Respect.

Adams, after all, never asked for a million dollars. She asked for a message to be sent about the discrimination against women – and black women in particular – in the workplace.

That message should be clanging long and loud in the ears of Senate Democrats and Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, the then-Senate minority leader who played a key role in Adams’ firing.

Adams is an African-American attorney who worked at the state Capitol for just over two years, serving as a policy adviser to Senate Democrats. She earned $60,000, never got a raise and said she was the only policy adviser not allowed to pick which committee she staffed.

Imagine her surprise to learn that she earned “substantially” less than her colleagues when Senate employees’ salaries were published by a media outlet in 2015.

In fact, she earned nearly $30,000 less than her counterpart who advised Senate Republicans on similar issues.

Their jobs were virtually the same. Only their pay was different. That, and the fact that the GOP policy adviser was a white male and she was a black female.

Adams emailed Senate Democratic leaders and the Democrats’ chief of staff to discuss her concerns. Hobbs replied that her email was “inappropriate,” saying her concerns already had been addressed.

Within weeks, Adams was fired while in Seattle, taking care of her son during a medical emergency.

She sued, contending she was terminated because she made waves about pay disparity. Senate attorneys countered that she wasn’t doing a good job and that staffers who work for the minority Democrats make less than staffers who work for majority

Talonya Adams, in her lawsuit, didn’t ask for $1 million. What she asked for is fairness. What she deserves is that and something more: our respect.

Republicans. (What?)

Hobbs in July testified that Adams repeatedly complained about her pay to legislators and staff outside her supervisory circle and didn’t give sufficient notice before leaving to take care of her son — something Adams disputed.

“I think we all agreed that we had lost trust and confidence in Ms. Adams, and that was why that decision (to fire her) was made,” Hobbs told jurors.

Jurors didn’t buy it.

In fact, they sided with Adams on all counts.

She was, jurors declared, discriminated against because of her race and because of her gender and when she complained, she was kicked to the curb.

The jury awarded Adams $1 million in compensatory damages but this week, as expected, a federal judge cut the award by two-thirds. Federal law caps awards in employment discrimination cases at $300,000 for employers the size of the state of Arizona.

U.S. District Court Judge Douglas Rayes awarded Adams $300,000 in damages and another $53,000, in back pay and lost earnings.

And he ordered the Senate to give Adams her job back by Oct 31.

Presumably, that means Senate Democrats. Their current leader, Sen. David Bradley, assured the jury in July that Democrats “are committed to a non-discriminatory workplace environment and always have been.”

Well, now they – and Senate President Karen Fann, who presides over the chamber – have a chance to prove it – by treating Talonya Adams in a way that so many women aren’t.

In Arizona, women typically earn 84 cents for every dollar paid to men, according to the National Women’s Law Center. Nationwide, we on average earn 82 cents for every $1 a man makes.

Put a black woman and a white man in the same job in Arizona and the woman will earn just 66 cents for every dollar he earns. If she’s a Latina, drop that to 55 cents.

Talonya Adams, in her lawsuit, didn’t ask for $1 million. What she asked for is fairness.

What she deserves is that and something more: our respect.

It’s beyond ridiculous that women, especially women of color, still aren’t getting a fair shake and good for Talonya Adams for providing a powerful reminder of that sad fact.