BNY Mellon agrees to pay $1.93M to settle discrimination claims in JC (updated)

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After a routine compliance review by the U.S. Department of Labor found that The Bank of New York Mellon Corp. unfairly paid female, Black and Hispanic employees at its Jersey City location, the company has agreed to pay $1.925 million in back wages to settle the allegations.

Under the terms of the resolution announced Nov. 21, BNY Mellon will conduct a compensation analysis for affected groups and make salary adjustments to remedy significant pay disparities based on gender, race or ethnicity.

Additionally, the company must review and revise its overall compensation system, implement enhanced training to managers to ensure future compliance and make a plan to analyze compensation annually.

According to the DOL, a review by its Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs determined BNY Mellon discriminated against 120 female workers in investment services technology positions and 47 Black and 26 Hispanic workers in its technology services group from Dec. 1, 2016, to Dec. 1, 2017.

The review found that the company paid the female employees less than their male counterparts in similar positions and paid the Black and Hispanic workers less than their Asian counterparts in similar positions, the DOL said.

These actions violated Executive Order 11246, which prohibits federal contractors from discriminating in employment decisions based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or national origin.

By entering into a conciliation agreement voluntarily, BNY Mellon – which has federal contracts with the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Veterans Affairs – avoided being issued a notice of violation, according to the DOL.

“Our conciliation agreement with BNY Mellon Corp. will ensure that the federal contractor’s compensation policies and practices provide equal pay and will remedy discriminatory and unjustified pay gaps,” said Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs Northeast Regional Director Diana Sen in New York.

A BNY Mellon spokesperson told NJBIZ that while the company “is pleased to have resolved this matter,” it disagrees “with the government’s allegations which concern fewer than 200 of our more than 53,000 employees over a limited time period, and do not assert any violation of law.”

“BNY Mellon is committed to providing equal pay for equal work,” according to the spokesperson. “Our recent pay practices review found that total compensation for both women globally and U.S. employees from underrepresented ethnic or racial backgrounds is, on average, 100% of their respective counterparts doing the same or similar work.”

Editor’s note: This story was updated at 12:44 p.m. ET to clarify that the BNY Mellon representative spoke on behalf of the company.