Sinclair, Inc. has agreed to pay $100,000 to settle a racial discrimination lawsuit that alleged the broadcaster underpaid a Black worker compared to her colleagues.

The case was initially filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in 2022. In a complaint reviewed by The Desk, the EEOC said Sinclair hired a woman, Jonae Rollins, to serve in an information technology-related role in 2015 on a temporary basis, then promoted her to a full-time position one year later.

“Defendant paid Ms. Rollins less than it paid employees who are not Black to perform similar work,” the complaint said, adding that Rollins was not only qualified to do her work, but was often asked to perform tasks that her other, higher-paid white colleagues could not.

“For example, a white employee who worked with Ms. Rollins was paid more than Ms. Rollins even though they performed similar work and was granted employment opportunities that were not offered or granted to Ms. Rollins,” the complaint said. “Further, Ms. Rollins was assigned work that white employees were either unavailable to perform or could not perform successfully; nevertheless, Ms. Rollins was paid less than the white employees to perform such work.”

Rollins worked for Sinclair for around three years, according to her online resume. During that time, she was eligible for — but never received — promotional opportunities and pay raises.

Rollins complained about the inequity during a conversation with her supervisors in 2017. At the time, Sinclair agreed that “her job title should be changed to reflect the higher-level work that she had been performing, but the company proposed to pay her less than others were earning to perform similar work,” the EEOC contends.

Still, Sinclair continued to advance others around Rollins while paying her less than her colleagues. By February 2018, Rollins was told that “she was the lowest-paid employee on the team,” the EEOC said. The admission was linked to “company pay records,” the agency asserted.

Eventually, Sinclair told Rollins that there was “support for increasing her pay,” and that the company would process a salary boost “soon,” but Sinclair never did, the EEOC claimed in its complaint.

Rollins took the matter to Sinclair’s human resources department and asked to speak with an Equal Employment Opportunity representative. Sinclair’s HR department “advised Ms. Rollins that the company would conduct a compensation study to compare her salary to that of similar workers in the external labor market,” and the study ultimately showed that Rollins was underpaid as she alleged, the EEOC said.

Still, Sinclair never increased her pay. Instead, the company delayed the matter in September 2018 “because of company restructuring,” the EEOC revealed.

Even after being told that her salary increase was conditioned in the company’s restructuring, Rollins later learned that a white subordinate on her team received a raise after meeting with Sinclair management. The colleague was paid $21,000 more than what Sinclair was paying Rollins, and they offered the subordinate other perks, including an opportunity for full-time remote work, the EEOC said.

Rollins sent a written complaint about the issue to Sinclair in May 2018, during which she said if her pay was not increased, she’d be forced to resign. Shortly after she sent the letter, Sinclair “decided that it no longer wanted to employ Ms. Rollins,” and eventually terminated her — even though she was never disciplined by the company during her three-year job.

“The effect of the practices complained of above has been to deprive Ms. Rollins of equal employment opportunities and otherwise adversely affect her status as an employee because of her race,” the EEOC said.

The EEOC filed a federal lawsuit against Sinclair three years ago. The case was brought in Maryland, where Sinclair is headquartered and where Rollins worked for the company.

Four months after the case was opened, Sinclair filed a response to the complaint, denying it engaged in “unlawful employment practices” and saying the EEOC never sought to “provide appropriate relief” to Rollins. But the company agreed that Rollins produced satisfactory work, and that executives engaged with her on salary-related discussions.

In August, the EEOC said it reached a settlement with Sinclair that requires the broadcaster to shell out $100,000 in “back pay and compensatory and punitive damages” to Rollins.

The settlement also requires Sinclair to “provide periodic reporting, monitoring, and training to employees to ensure compliance with” the employment provisions of the Civil Rights Act, also known as Title VII. The monitoring period lasts 18 months, the EEOC said in a statement.

“No worker should be subjected to unequal pay because of their race,” Debra Lawrence, the Regional Attorney for the EEOC’s Philadelphia office, which handles matters involving employment across multiple states, said in a statement.

In a statement, Sinclair said the settlement was meant to save the company from legal-related expenses, and that it wasn’t an indication of any wrongdoing.

“Sinclair has entered into a consent decree to resolve this matter without any admission of wrongdoing, allowing us to move forward and avoid unnecessary further legal expenses,” a spokesperson said. “We remain committed to maintaining an inclusive workplace and will fully comply with the decree’s terms.”