Female former engineer alleges systemic pay discrimination against women and minorities
A former female employee of SpaceX is suing the company for discrimination, alleging it systematically pays women and minorities less than white males.
Reuters reported that the former engineer, Ashley Foltz, filed a proposed class action suit against the satellite company in California state court on Tuesday. The case alleges that SpaceX paid her $92,000 compared with $115,000 for her male colleagues with similar or lesser qualifications or duties.
She became aware of the discrepancy when SpaceX was required to post pay ranges publicly on job listings, after a “pay transparency” law came into effect this year in California.
The lawsuit alleged that differing job titles for the same or similar roles were used to justify paying lower wages to minority and female workers, Techcrunch reported. For example, a female engineer would be given the title “technical writer” in order to pay them less than an “engineer 1”, the suit alleged.
Elon Musk-owned companies in hot water for discriminatory practices
The allegation comes only weeks after Tesla, another Elon Musk-owned company, was sued for systemic open racism at its electric car plants in Fremont, California.
In that case, brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency stated, “since at least 2015 to the present, Black employees at Tesla’s Fremont, California manufacturing facilities have routinely endured racial abuse, pervasive stereotyping, and hostility”.
That suit was brought as a result of Tesla’s failure to comply with a mandatory conciliation process from a 2015 court order.
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SpaceX has also been accused by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) for refusing to hire refugees and asylum-seekers who don’t have U.S. citizenship. In that case, Tesla denied guilt and has filed a counter-suit against the DOL claim, Reuters reported.
Also, X Corp, formerly Twitter, acquired by Musk last year, is facing several charges of discriminatory firing against older, female and disabled workers from when the billionaire conducted mass layoffs after the purchase.