Opinion ID: 201705
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Merits of Ingram's EPA Claim

Text: 61 The district court properly noted that Ingram provided scant evidence showing that she was paid less than Hardy and Hosfeld for jobs requiring equal responsibility. Ingram provides no specifics as to Hardy's job functions while he was assistant branch manager after her resignation from Brink's, 10 and the specifics she provides with regard to Hosfeld's job functions while he was assistant branch manager indicate that his responsibilities were distinct from hers, and significantly more demanding. Based on these facts, Ingram's pay discrimination claim is not viable. 62 First, Ingram makes much of Hardy's $50,000 starting salary as assistant branch manager, $5,000 more than she was offered just a few weeks earlier. But Ingram turned down Brinks' promotion offer because she found another job paying more than the $45,000 that they offered her. But Ingram was never paid less than Hardy for the same job — she never took the job — and Hardy was offered more after Ingram had already left the company (quite possibly because the company got the message that they were not offering enough). 63 Second, Ingram alleges that Hosfeld was paid $4000 more per year than she was paid while he was the Lawrence assistant manager. Based on the record, however, Hosfeld and Ingram performed distinct duties. Hosfeld's responsibilities included learning more of the operation of the branch, learning more of budgeting, being available 24 hours, seven days a week, overall supervision of the facility, opening and closing, staffing, dispatching, scheduling the runs, scheduling the personnel, and on and on. Meanwhile, by her own description, Ingram's responsibilities as operations manager were largely administrative, including maintaining billing records, preparing monthly financial reports, handling customer service issues related to billing, and performing vault audits. 64 In summary, both of the male employees that she alleges were being paid more for performing equal responsibilities were paid as assistant managers, a position that she never held either in title or substance. By all accounts, their duties and responsibilities were distinctly more demanding, requiring more skill breadth and training, than Ingram's duties as branch supervisor or operations manager. Without more, Ingram has failed to show that Brink's compensated certain male employees at higher rates for performing jobs requiring equal skill, effort and responsibility.