Texaco pays $3m in sexism case

THE OIL company Texaco has agreed to pay a total of $3.1m (pounds 1.9m) in back pay and salary increases to 186 female employees who were paid less than men doing similar work. The settlement was announced by the US Labour Secretary, Alexis Herman, who warned that other companies faced similar scrutiny by regulators.

The women, who range from senior managers to executive secretaries, worked in Texaco offices throughout the United States, but comprise less than 2 per cent of the company's female employees. The largest amount payable to any one woman is $51,000.

Introducing what she described as a settlement and Texaco described as a "conciliation agreement", Ms Herman said: "These women were underpaid as a matter of course for years. The company was inconsistently applying its compensation policies to women."

The Labour Department has plans to audit about 40 major US companies in the coming year to assess the pay of female managers. In the US it is estimated that women's pay is on average only 76 per cent of men's pay for equivalent work.

The pay gap at Texaco was uncovered during a routine review by a government office which monitors companiesworking for the US government to ensure they comply with employment laws. Texaco says it has introduced a fair pay review to "make sure that salaries for all employees across the board are equitable".