This 17-Year-Old Was Fired After Asking for Equal Pay at Her Summer Job
When a Kansas teenager discovered that her guy friend was making more money than she was for the same job, she asked her boss about it - and then got fired.
Jensen Walcott, 17, was hired at Pizza Studio in Kansas City for $8 an hour. She was thrilled to get the job, especially when she learned that her good friend Jake Reed, also 17, had been hired. Even though Jensen and Jake are the same age, have the same amount of experience, and were hired for the same position, Jake was hired at $8.25 an hour.
Assuming it was a mistake, Jensen called her new boss. She was put on hold.
"I was like maybe when I'm on hold right now, she will just offer me $8.25 and everything is gonna be good but... she didn't do that," Jensen told WDAF.
The manager returned and told Jensen she was fired for discussing wages, which is against policy. Next, she called Jake and fired him.
"She said you're fired," Jake told WDAF. "Basically just like a 10 second phone call."
Neither teen had ever been told that discussing wages was against policy.
Attorney David White told WDAF that the National Labor Relations Board says it's appropriate to discuss wages, which gives White reason to believe that Jensen could reasonably retaliate in court.
"At face value it appears, that the young lady was terminated because she complained about unequal wages. That's illegal," White told WDAF. "Probably what happened - they're teenagers. They didn't think they'd complain."
Jensen isn't sure yet if she'll take any official legal action, but she still wants to fully understand why she wasn't given equal pay.
"They should definitely be ashamed of themselves," she said.
You might be wondering, why is a quarter such a big deal?
Well, it's not just Jensen. According to the Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR), there was a 21-percent wage gap between full-time male and female workers in 2014. And those numbers are even worse for women of color. Equal pay is a huge issue that affects millions of Americans. You work hard for your money - just as hard (or even harder!) than your male counterparts do. You deserve to be rewarded just the same.
