Bank of America accused of discriminating female brokers

Bank of America Corp was sued in a Manhattan federal lawsuit for discrimination against female brokers at the former Merrill Lynch & Co by offering them lower retention bonuses than male opposite numbers. According to the complaint, the bonus distribution authorized by Bank of America "disproportionately disadvantages women and advantages white men as favored employees".

Bank of America has about 15,800 brokers, most of whom came from Merrill. The bank acquired a company that had a history of mistreatment. Linda Friedman, a partner at Stowell & Friedman Ltd in Chicago representing the plaintiff, said rather than acknowledge that, and be part of the solution to level the playing field, Bank of America picked up where Merrill Lynch left off.

The complaint says that Jaime Goodman, who has worked at Merrill since 1992, brought the case. She has been a top-quintile performer and "a $1 million producer for nearly a decade," but would have performed even better and gotten a higher retention bonus absent gender bias. Goodman is seeking compensatory damages including the value of all compensation and benefits lost because of the alleged bias, as well as retributive damages and other remedies.

Besides, Bank of America and Merrill had separately faced other bias lawsuits accusing them of steering business to white workers. Friedman is still pursuing a 2005 federal lawsuit against Merrill in Chicago on behalf of African-American brokers.