Kay Jewelers parent faces EEOC sex-discrimination suit

David Schepp
The Journal News
September 25, 2008

BUFFALO - Federal officials yesterday charged Sterling Jewelers Inc., which operates Kay Jewelers stores in malls in Yorktown Heights and West Nyack, with discriminating against female employees by paying them less than their male counterparts and denying them promotions.
Female retail-sales employees were victims of a system in which promotion and compensation decisions were made in an "excessively subjective" fashion, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said in a statement announcing its lawsuit against the company, the nation's largest specialty-jewelry retailer.
Sterling Jewelers permitted or encouraged managers to deny female employees equal pay compared with men in similar positions and equal access to promotions, the EEOC said.
A spokesman for the Akron, Ohio-based company wasn't available for comment by phone and didn't respond to an e-mail message.
"We hope this case is a wake-up call to corporate America that sex discrimination in employment must be taken seriously and addressed appropriately," EEOC New York District Director Spencer H. Lewis Jr. said in a statement.
It should be a "no-brainer" in the 21st century that women should be paid and promoted based on merit, not gender, he said. [Full Story at: http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080925/BUSINESS01/809250424 ]