70 | Developments in Equal Pay Litigation ©2023 Seyfarth Shaw LLP investigate the employer’s alleged discriminatory practices as they related to plaintiff’s entire compensation, not just his compensation as Chair: “Excluding a claim related to [plaintiff’s] base salary because he used the phrase ‘salary as Chair’ in his EEOC charge would be to allow ‘procedural technicalities to bar claims,’ something the Eleventh Circuit has cautioned against.583 However, in Winns v. Exela Enterprise Solutions, Inc.,584 the court limited the scope of the EEOC’s case based on what was alleged in a charge. In that case, a Customer Service Associate for a technology company alleged a host of discrimination claims against his employer, including various wage discrimination claims. The employer argued that he failed to exhaust administrative remedies for some of those claims. The court acknowledged that “[t]he scope of the plaintiff's court action depends on the scope of the EEOC charge and investigation.”585 The charge specified “equal pay” as the basis for plaintiff’s discrimination complaint, but did not specify whether the discrimination was based on race, color, sex, religion, national origin, age, disability, or genetic information. Accordingly, the court held that although plaintiff had exhausted his administrative remedies with respect to his equal pay allegations, he had not done so to the extent they were based on race discrimination: “By contrast, with respect to the seventh cause of action, it appears to be based upon the allegations concerning equal pay and retaliation. On those grounds, [plaintiff] did not fail to exhaust, however, to the extent he now tries to base this upon theories of race discrimination and harassment, those, he failed to exhaust.”586 583 Id. (quoting Gregory, 355 F.3d at 1280). 584 Winns v. Exela Enter. Solutions, Inc., No. 4:20-cv-06762-YGR, 2022 WL 4094137 (N.D. Cal. Aug. 17, 2022). 585 Id. at *5. 586 Id. at *6.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTkwMTQ4