Opinion ID: 4246985
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: facts

Text: Manheim hired Bowen as an automobile detailer, and three years later (in late 2005), assistant general manager John Deck promoted her to arbitration manager. Bowen replaced a male arbitration manager. Manheim paid that male predecessor $46,350 during his first year as arbitration manager, but Deck and general manager Peter Palmer set Bowen’s starting salary at $32,000. Bowen’s salary did not reach $46,350 until her sixth year as arbitration manager. After learning about the pay disparity with her male predecessor, Bowen sued Manheim under the Equal Pay Act and Title VII. At summary judgment, she offered in support of her claims, among other things, (1) documents and testimony about her performance and salary history and (2) affidavit testimony from Manheim’s human resources manager, Mikiya Peoples. 2 Case: 16-17237 Date Filed: 02/21/2018 Page: 3 of 11 Bowen offered documents and testimony showing that, although she was an effective arbitration manager, her salary for a few years was below the minimum salary for arbitration managers and it was consistently well below the midpoint salary for arbitration managers. Manheim, for example, paid Bowen $37,001.60 in 2007; $41,000 in 2008; $46,075.63 in 2010; and $46,075.63 in 2011. But under Manheim’s compensation guidelines the midpoint salary for an arbitration manager was $49,400 in 2007; $52,900 in 2008; $55,500 in 2010; and $56,500 in 2011. In her affidavit, Peoples described interactions with Manheim general managers such as Deck and Palmer and her investigations into sex-based disparities at Manheim: • When Bowen was promoted to arbitration manager, Peoples approached Deck about the pay disparity between Bowen and Bowen’s male predecessor. Deck explained that the predecessor was more experienced than Bowen. However, he also acknowledged that the predecessor had trained Bowen for the position and that Bowen was fully capable of performing the position’s duties. • Comments from a 2007 employee survey that Peoples conducted indicated that (1) female employees were treated differently than male employees, (2) female employees were denied particular positions, and (3) a “good ole’ boy” system existed at Manheim. • The 2007 survey results prompted Peoples to conduct an investigation into sexbased disparities at Manheim. She gathered all of Manheim’s job postings and examined who applied and who interviewed for posted positions. Based on that review, she concluded that Manheim was excluding women from certain positions. Discussions with Palmer bolstered this conclusion. While discussing a female employee’s application for an assistant general manager position, Palmer told Peoples that he would not hire a woman as an assistant general manager. According to Palmer, Manheim would be “the laughing stock” of the 3 Case: 16-17237 Date Filed: 02/21/2018 Page: 4 of 11 community if it made such a hire. Palmer also once told Peoples that he would never allow a female to work as a mechanic. • Following the 2007 survey, Manheim’s corporate office directed Palmer to confer with it when setting employee compensation, but Palmer failed to follow that directive. • Comments from a 2009 employee survey that Peoples conducted indicated that female employees were paid less than male employees. • The 2009 survey results prompted Peoples to investigate pay disparities at Manheim. She instructed Manheim’s payroll administrator to run reports comparing women’s and men’s pay and prior pay increases. This investigation revealed that women were paid similarly but that their pay was “thousands of dollars less than men’s pay for the same jobs.” • Peoples reported her findings about sex-based pay disparities to Palmer, but he refused to address the disparities. • Peoples spoke to a corporate representative about her pay-disparity findings. The representative told Peoples to draft a formal report with her allegations and findings. Peoples then reviewed payroll data for all female and male employees, including Bowen. She specifically discussed Bowen with the corporate representative, noting that Bowen was “severely underpaid” compared to her male predecessor. • The corporate representative met with Palmer to discuss Peoples’s report. But Palmer told the representative that he “did not see a problem,” and he was unwilling to take corrective action. Consequently, the corporate office required Manheim to provide female employees “equity increases” in their pay. Bowen received such equity increases. • Around 2010 or 2011, Ben Shurling replaced Palmer as Manheim’s general manager, but sex-based discrimination continued to exist at Manheim. Indeed, Shurling harassed female employees by groping them and smacking their buttocks. And on one occasion, Shurling told Peoples to serve as a receptionist on sale day so that customers would return and say, “Where’s that pretty little black girl that was working here last week?” On another occasion, Shurling attempted to replace a female employee with a male, but the corporate office 4 Case: 16-17237 Date Filed: 02/21/2018 Page: 5 of 11 told him that doing so would be illegal. Shurling responded, “Why can’t we just pay a fine?” The district court granted summary judgment to Manheim, finding that Manheim offered nondiscriminatory reasons for the pay disparity between Bowen and her male predecessor and that Bowen failed to rebut those reasons. Bowen relies primarily on Peoples’s affidavit to show sex bias, the district court determined, and most of the affidavit is inadmissible hearsay. Further, to the extent that the affidavit includes admissible evidence, the evidence is of limited value because it does not directly show that sex bias factored into Manheim’s salary decisions.