The headquarters of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. Photo Courtesy of Fox-orian / CC BY-SA 3.0
A lawsuit filed in federal court alleges that the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston paid a former auditor less than her male colleagues and then fired her in retaliation for complaining to supervisors.
Cynthia S. Fernandes filed the lawsuit last week alleging violations of the federal Equal Pay Act and the Massachusetts Equal Pay Act. Fernandes has also filed charges with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission claiming civil rights violations, according to the lawsuit.
The Boston Business Journal first reported the lawsuit.
According to the lawsuit, Fernandes was hired as an auditor at the Boston Fed in 2011 and promoted to the role of senior auditor in 2013. Fernandes was expecting to be promoted to the role of audit director in 2015 or 2016. Instead, she was promoted to lead auditor in 2015, a role that had been created in 2014.
The lawsuit alleges that Fernandes was given the responsibilities of an audit director without having the title. She received $30,000 less per year than the audit directors, according to the lawsuit, and an annual bonus $10,000 to $15,000 less than the audit directors.
The lawsuit states that Fernandes received excellent performance reviews and that she was told there was no money in the budget to make her an audit director. She was promoted to a newly created position, audit manager, in January 2018. The salary was $10,000 to $15,000 less than the male audit directors, with an annual bonus $10,000 to $15,000 less, according to the lawsuit.
During a meeting in February 2019 with her supervisor, the lawsuit alleges, Fernandes was told that “you will never be promoted to an audit director”, that “you are less than the men in this department” and “you only exist in order to make my job easier.”
Fernandes was fired in April 2019 after being told by human resources that she had used an insubordinate tone in an email and was insubordinate for meeting with her supervisor’s supervisor to discuss her concerns.
Fernandes is requesting payment for lost wages, emotional distress, attorney costs and other damages.
A Boston Fed spokesman said in an email that the Boston Fed would not comment on pending litigation as a matter of course, adding that “the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston has a longstanding commitment to gender pay equity in our policies and our practice – and we have been active participants in gender pay equity efforts here in the city of Boston.”
