Legal Question in Employment Law in Texas

Discrimination

I have a two part question concerning Texas EEOC and Wage and Hour laws.

1. Can you hire a male employee at $6.00 an hour and a female employee at $5.50 an hour when their job titles and job descriptions are the same?

2. Can you give departments with 90% females a paid 5 minute break, and not give another department that has all males a break also?

What laws would be broken and what penalities could be imposed?

Thank you.


Asked on 10/09/03, 9:09 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Trang Tran Tran Law Firm L.L.P.

Re: Discrimination

Question 1 involves the Equal Employment Act which requires female employees to be paid the same rate as male employees that have similar jobs. Remedies: wage difference, injunction, and legal fees.

Question 2 relates to the Fair Labor Standards Act. For non-exempted employees, breaks of less than 20 minutes should be included in the 40 hours worked in the work week which forms the basis of overtime calculations. i.e. Non-exempted employees who work 40 hours a week and spend an extra 5 minutes a day for "breaks" in the office actually work 40 hours and 25 minutes (5 days x 5 minutes). They are entitled to overtime for the 25 minutes over 40 hours.

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Answered on 10/11/03, 10:41 pm


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