Notice how Murray avoids the basic issue. It's not that she was fired, it's that she was paid less than white people who did her same job.

While I fully agree that equal pay is an issue that needs fixing...

Those increases her successors were/are making are pretty small, almost cost of living increases.

It's not a lawsuit. It's a claim with the city.

(also) ...paid less than the male people who did her same job. gotta remain true to both issues(!)



next-up: the gender-preference shift (if any)



(her attorney, who is doing the suing, is a woman of color?)

So they decided to pay more for a competent flack. Next story.

Considering how poorly she did (sending out an incomplete press release?), I'm surprised it ONLY cost $5000/yr extra to get someone better.

I don't want to make a premature judgment on the validity of her case, but did the successors to Brazel have more experience or less experience doing the same or similar work? People with more experience usually make more for a similar position than those with less. But if the successors had less or the same experience, I could see her point.

@1: So everyone with the same job title in any organization must be paid the exact same salary? Regardless of experience, accomplishments, salary history, etc.?

I imagine it's hard to prove bias in this kind of case as it is comparing several quite similar salaries rather than showing a long term trend.

The gender pay gap is supposed to be what 77% percent?

This was 5%, well above the average.

Murray was working hard to find his feet because he was completely unqualified to be a government executive. Hiding behind press secretaries, canned talking points and large committees is all he was (and still is) capable of.

Not knowing more about her qualifications and experience relative to her , successors, it's difficult to tell if this is legit.



If all other factors turn out to be equal, and she was simply being paid less than the white woman, and both of them less than the white man, then we have a problem.

My understanding is that Brazel was a very junior communications consultant before she got the job in Murray's office. Given the two serious fuck-ups that led to her sacking, one might reasonably conclude that she was out of her league and lacked the expertise to do the job properly. And now she's claiming race and gender discrimination? Please.

#13 - Have you every had employees?

There are times you simply have to tell them not to interrupt you. Or maybe worked with an annoying co-worked. I had a staff member who had to tell her office mate "do not talk to me" because he kept interrupting.

That doesn't speak to discrimination. It is ridiculous to think he hired someone then when they made serious mistakes he let her go, and that somehow it is related to gender or race?

$5,000 difference is a drop in the bucket. When you hire a new person, they negotiate or you round it up because you really want that person. It doesn't mean even that they are more or less experienced, just that they are in a position to negotiate at a given time. Perhaps if the next guy made $120 there would be something to discuss.

McGinn couldn't have these kinds of problems because the City Council (dicks) took away all the Mayor's Office's money.

They were paying that former Stranger intern like what -- $19,000 and a bus pass? -- to do the same job.

So...did you bother to determine in this "article" if Megan, who was on loan, was being paid more than the plaintiff? If so, they are going to pay her what she was making in her position with DoIT and not make her do a pay cut for a more high,profile job. Really, if you are going to be a reporter Ansel you really should do...research.

McGinn’s ... first communications director made $95,000 .
Nickels' communications director, Robert Mak, made $160,000

Is 5k really not appropriate when you do such a poor job you get fired in a few months ?

http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2…

He may be an asshat, but this ex-employee is not doing herself any favor by making this claim after having been fired for making two pretty stupid mistakes.

Wow....who cares. Most of those guys are way overpaid anyway for what they do, and clearly as Im no better off these days trying to keep up with an unsustainable cost of living on a wage I was making 5 years ago which is a hell of a lot less than 95,000 a year just to be an incompetent mouthpiece who is by all accounts more concerned with her gender and race than doing the job right. Which is just prettying-up situations for the general public and media to digest like a coma patient digests liquid nourishment through a tube. And since all i ever hear anymore is how every sect of society is so put upon and should get more because, they are a woman, an african american, a chinese-american, and American Indigineous American, or martian-american, then I say "who cares anymore"!? Pay the incompetent out and she can work for Boeing, or Amazon or Microsoft, JBLM, or the Stranger, im sure they'd hire her

If she's suing the city directly, does that mean that the EEOC told her to take a hike?

Why did the young lady accept a job offer that was less than what others were making?

It's like she didn't have the skillz to ask for real money.

Do some investigative reading folks. She was not treated the same as other employees Murray booted out of the inner sanctum. She had a boss she reported to who approved her work and told her who had died. The Mayor confirmed it. She didn't know either of the men with similar last names. She took the bullet on the Mayor and her boss Jeff Reading's stupidity.

@27, it is reasonable to expect that a press secretary, particularly one who previously worked as a journalist, as she did, would check and double check facts before sending out a press release about someone dying. It was her responsibility to verify the accuracy of any information she released, just as when reporters makes factual errors the responsibility lies with them. Blaming a source is not a justifiable defense. She made two completely amateur mistakes and got sacked for ineptitude. That should be the end of the story.

This is pretty infuriating. What is this telling her she is not allowed to speak to the mayor when assigned to ride in his car shit? Real classy guy. I am not surprised she was sabotaged out of her job, partially because of a mistake made by HIS male flunky.







Nothing new under the sun here. Women of color trusting old white dudes to do right by them always ends badly, although never for the old whitey. Hope she gets justice.