U.S. Calls Lawyer Pay Plan Biased

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has found that Los Angeles County created a two-tiered pay system that discriminated against women lawyers.

The dispute involves Auxiliary Legal Services, a nonprofit organization created by the county in the late 1980s when money was scarce and caseloads for lawyers in the county counsel’s office were on the rise. The group hired lawyers and support staff to work for the county counsel at lower pay and with benefits inferior to those of full-fledged county employees.

Most of the auxiliary’s lawyers were women, while most of the county counsel’s attorneys were men, according to the commission’s Aug. 21 finding.

The auxiliary lawyers were paid about 20% less than their county counsel counterparts for doing the same job, according to David Stobaugh, a Seattle attorney representing the auxiliary lawyers in two class-action lawsuits against the county.

“We call it the women’s auxiliary,” Stobaugh said. “They had a two-tiered wage system. They had the women’s scale and the men’s scale.”

County lawyers do not dispute that the auxiliary’s lawyers were paid less for similar work. But they contend that the attorneys were not county employees, and that employing non-Civil Service staff at lower pay and benefits is legal, even common in government. Auxiliary lawyers were hired under a standard different from those for civil servants, said Donovan Main, senior assistant county counsel.

Stobaugh criticized the county’s argument as “form over substance.”

Main said it is unclear why more women than men worked for the auxiliary group and denies that the county violated the Equal Pay Act, a federal law banning pay rates based on an employee’s gender.

Under the direction of new county counsel Bill Pellman, the office has hired the majority of the auxiliary’s lawyers to fill Civil Service positions, but the issue is far from moot. Plaintiffs in the civil suits are fighting for back pay and pensions, which do not cover the years some of them worked for the auxiliary.

Stobaugh said the commission’s finding bolsters his case, but county lawyers said they will continue to fight the lawsuits.