Wilmington's UniFirst Agrees To Pay $104K For Alleged Pay Discrepancy

WILMINGTON, MA — Wilmington-based UniFirst has agreed to pay over $104,000 in back pay and interest to 37 current and former female employees at its Pennsylvania production facility after an alleged gender-based pay discrepancy was discovered during a routine audit, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced Wednesday.

UniFirst, which has approximately 14,000 employees in North America and Europe, supplies uniforms for a variety of industries and is a federal contractor, according to the DOL.

In a Wednesday release, the DOL said that a compliance review by the department's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) alleges that beginning on Jan. 1, 2021, Unifirst paid some female employees less than their male counterparts

This violated Executive Order 11246, which prohibits federal contractors from discriminating in employment based on race, color, sex, gender identity or national origin, according to the DOL.

In addition to paying the back pay and interest —which is a total of $104,568 — UniFirst has agreed to proactively review its policies and practices and analyze base salaries of production department employees for compensation disparities, the DOL said.

"Our agreement with UniFirst shows the U.S. Department of Labor's commitment to combating pay discrimination and holding federal contractors accountable if they fail to ensure equal employment opportunity," said Sam Maiden, the OFCCP regional director in Philadelphia. "Federal contractors must ensure there are no gender-based disparities in compensation."

Maiden added: "We appreciate UniFirst working with the department cooperatively to resolve the latest issue quickly, and put steps in place to prevent it from happening again."

Patch reached out to UniFirst for a comment, but the company has yet to respond.

According to the DOL, UniFirst previously has entered into OFCCP conciliation agreements for alleged violations in Charlotte, North Carolina, in January 2017, and for alleged violations in Nashua, New Hampshire, in July 2020.