After concluding deliberations which began yesterday afternoon, a jury found in favor Anheuser-Busch in a pay discrimination case brought by the company's former executive, Francine Katz:
Katz, an attorney who worked at A-B from 1988 until Belgian brewer InBev acquired the company in 2008, alleged in her lawsuit filed in 2009 that she was underpaid because of her gender.
The trial in St. Louis Circuit Court, which stretched over three weeks, drew broad interest, in part, because the allegations focused on the actions of top executives at one of the city's most storied corporations. It also offered a look at how women who climbed the corporate ladder at Anheuser-Busch were treated.
Thirty witnesses testified, including former CEOs August Busch III and his son, August Busch IV. Jurors heard about promotions and pay, golf outings and hunting lodges, job titles and corporate practices.
In the end, nine jurors — five women and four men — found Katz had failed to make her case.
http://www.stltoday.com/...
Katz's claim was based on the Missouri Human Rights Act's prohibition against discrimination based on gender. As the article states, Katz's compensation in 2007 was still only 46% of that of her male predecessor's.
There is a lot that could be said about the issues involved in this case and how those issues and the general attitudes people have toward the case given the parties involved represent a microcosm of America today, but I'll leave for others to expound. Regardless of the result, the case helped bring the issue into the local and national conversation and shed light on an issue many women, regardless of their position in the workplace, face in their careers. It's an issue that is not going to go away anytime soon, either, with the information that is coming to light surrounding the New York Times' decision to dissmiss Jill Abramson, the newspaper's first female executive editor, and the midterm elections coming up this fall.
