Booz Allen Hamilton Hit with Class Action Alleging It ‘Systematically’ Underpays Female Consultants

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Booz Allen Hamilton, Inc. is staring down a proposed class action lawsuit in which a former lead associate alleges the mammoth management consulting outfit does not pay female consultant employees on a grade equal to that of their male counterparts. 

The lawsuit explains the plaintiff began her work with Booz Allen as a contractor in 2011, with a starting salary of $29 per hour. One month into her tenure, the plaintiff was allegedly offered a full-time senior consultant position for a yearly salary of $76,000. The case notes the plaintiff excelled at Booz Allen and, in January 2016, was given a promotion to a lead associate role—a position in which the lawsuit points out she managed two male and seven female subordinates.

The complaint states that shortly after coming into her new role, the plaintiff, given the access she had to her subordinates’ pay records, discovered “that all of her female subordinates were paid substantially less than their male counterparts, despite their similar or advanced qualifications.” Upon these revelations, the case continues, the plaintiff then began to “have concerns about her own low salary,” which, periodic raises notwithstanding, the woman suspected was nowhere near adequate enough for the level of work involved with her position.

The lawsuit says the plaintiff complained through the proper channels, i.e. as far up the ladder as Booz Allen’s chief administrative officer, and eventually secured a $10,000 market salary adjustment that the lawsuit says still did not bring the plaintiff’s pay up to the minimum benchmark of salary ranges for her job title. 

The complaint rounds out by claiming that just shy of her five-year anniversary with Booz Allen, the plaintiff was handed a “Lack of Work Order” terminating her employment, ostensibly as a reorganizing and cost-cutting measure.