|
JOCELYN
D. LARKIN (SBN 110817) THE
IMPACT FUND 125
University Avenue Berkeley,
CA 94710 Telephone: (510)
845-3473 Facsimile: (510) 845-3654 |
JOSEPH
SELLERS CHRISTINE
WEBBER CHARLES
TOMPKINS JULIE
GOLDSMITH COHEN,
MILSTEIN, HAUSFELD & TOLL West
Tower – Suite 500 1100
New York Avenue Washington,
D.C. 20005-3964 Telephone: (202) 408-4600 Facsimile: (202) 408-4699 |
|
IRMA
D. HERRERA (SBN 98658) DEBRA
A. SMITH (SBN 147863) EQUAL
RIGHTS ADVOCATES 1663
Mission Street, Suite 250 San
Francisco, CA 94103 Telephone: (415)
621-0672 Facsimile: (415) 621-6744 |
STEPHEN
TINKLER MERIT
BENNETT TINKLER
& BENNETT 309
Johnson Street Santa
Fe, New Mexico 87501 Telephone: (505) 986-0269 Facsimile: (505) 982-6698 |
|
SHEILA
Y. THOMAS (SBN 161403) EQUAL
RIGHTS ADVOCATES 5260
Proctor Avenue Oakland,
CA 94618 Telephone: (510) 339-3739 Facsimile: (510) 339-3723 |
DEBRA
GARDNER PUBLIC
JUSTICE CENTER 500
East Lexington Street Baltimore,
MD 21202 Telephone: (410) 625-9409 Facsimile: (410) 625-9423 |
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STEVE
STEMERMAN (SBN 067690) ELIZABETH
LAWRENCE (SBN 111781) DAVIS,
COWELL & BOWE 100
Van Ness Avenue, 20th Floor San
Francisco, CA 94102 Telephone: (415)
626-1880 Facsimile: (415)
626-2860 Attorneys for Plaintiffs |
SHAUNA
MARSHALL (SBN 90641) HASTINGS
COLLEGE OF THE LAW 200
McAllister Street San Francisco, CA 94102 Telephone: (415)
565-4685 Facsimile:
(415) 565-4854 |
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
I, Jan Wolsleger, declare:
1. I am a female from Toquerville,
Utah. I worked for Wal-Mart from
November 1996 until September 2001 and began working again for Wal-Mart in
January 2003.
2. When I first started working for
Wal-Mart, I had a history of retail management experience, including
supervisory experience at Sav-On Drugs and owning and operating my own crafts
store.
3. I was hired at the Wal-Mart Store in
American Fork, Utah in November 1996 as the Department Manager of crafts and
fabrics. In approximately February 1997,
I joined the SWAS (store within a store) team, a salaried position. As a SWAS Team Member, I traveled from store
to store all over the western half of the country remodeling Wal-Mart stores. Each store I helped remodel was set up in a
similar fashion. I remodeled stores for
approximately a year and nine months, until I joined the Management Training
Program in November of 1998.
4. I entered the Management Training
Program at the Wal-Mart store in St. George, Utah. When I entered the program, Store Manager
Mark Neighbors told me that Wal-Mart started all Manager Trainees at the same
rate of pay, and once trainees completed the program, all trainees began their
Assistant Manager positions at the same rate of pay as well. I relied on this representation, and believed
there was no point in attempting to negotiate a higher salary.
5. When I completed the Management
Training Program in January 1999, I became an Assistant Manager at the St.
George store where I had trained. As a new
Assistant Manager, I was paid approximately $25,500 per year. By December 2000, I was making $29, 500 per
year.
6. Dan Behymer, a male, began the
Management Training Program in December 2000.
Unlike me, Mr. Behymer had no retail experience prior to working at
Wal-Mart. As a Management Trainee,
Wal-Mart paid him over $30,000 per year.
When he completed the program in March 2001, he was paid a salary of
over $42,000 per year, $16,000 more than the salary Wal-Mart paid me when I
became an Assistant Manager and $12,000 more than I was currently making after
nearly two years in the position.
7. I was alerted to Mr. Behymer’s larger
salary because he insisted on telling me what Wal-Mart was paying him. He also told me that I was “being screwed” in
my compensation by Wal-Mart. As a result
of this unfair discrepancy I later confronted my Store Manager, Mr. Neighbors,
who confirmed that the pay discrepancy indeed existed.
8. In September 2001, I gave Mr. Neighbors
my notice that I would be ending my employment with Wal-Mart. I told him that I disagreed with the way that
Wal-Mart paid newer male Assistant Managers more money than I was paid. Mr. Neighbors told me that I needed to sell
myself better. I reminded him that he
was the one who told me that Wal-Mart paid all beginning Assistant Managers the
same wage. He responded again by saying,
that I had needed to sell myself better to him.
He did not deny that newer male Assistant Managers were paid more, nor
did he offer any justification for the discrepancy. He did not suggest that I did not work as
hard or that I did not have equal competence.
9. On my last day of work in September
2001, I spoke with District Manager Sean Evans for over an hour about my
decision to leave Wal-Mart. I told Mr.
Evans that I was sick of the men being paid more than me while doing the same
job. He told me that neither he nor Mr.
Neighbors had the authority to give me a raise.
He did not deny that the male Assistant Managers, even those with less
experience than me, were being paid more than me. He did not suggest that there was any
legitimate reason for this discrepancy. Then, after several more minutes of
discussion, he said, “I guess I could offer you $36,000” to stay. This was still less then the men were
making. This offer also exposed Mr.
Evans’ untruthfulness to me just minutes
before when he told me he could not control the salaries of assistant
managers. I told Mr. Evans I had made up
my mind and left.
10. After I left Wal-Mart in September 2001,
I worked for several months as an Assistant Manager at Michael’s Arts &
Crafts store. In January 2003, when I
was no longer working at Michael’s Arts & Crafts store, District Manager
Evans asked me to come back to Wal-Mart as an Assistant Manager. I accepted his offer and returned to the
St. George Wal-Mart store, because there were not many retail management jobs
available in my area. When I started
again at Wal-Mart in January 2003, there were nine male assistant managers and
only one other female assistant manager in my store. Currently, as of April 2003, there are a
total of three female Assistant Managers, including me, and one male Assistant
Manager in my store. The store manager
has always been male. I still do not
make as much money as Mr. Behymer made when he began working at Wal-Mart as an
Assistant Manager.
I
have personal knowledge of each and every fact set forth in the Declaration,
and if called to testify as a witness in this matter, I could and would
competently testify to each of these facts.
I
declare under penalty of perjury of the laws of the United States and State of
Utah that the foregoing is true and correct.
This
Declaration was signed by me on ______________________, 2003, at
_______________________.
______________________________
Jan Wolsleger
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