FDPK’s Deborah Marcuse wins Class Certification in $250 Million Sex Discrimination Case

U.S. District Court Certifies Female Sales Representative’s Nationwide Equal Pay Act Sex Discrimination Case Against Pharma Behemoth Merck & Co., Inc.

Deborah Marcuse, co-lead counsel in $250 million sex discrimination lawsuit

The women in Smith, et al. v. Merck & Co., Inc., 3:13-cv-02970 (D.N.J.), a $250 million gender bias class action, scored a victory on April 27, 2016.  Judge Michael A. Shipp of the U.S. District Court in New Jersey conditionally certified a class of current and former female sales representatives challenging sex discrimination.  This important ruling paves the way for thousands of women throughout the country to join the lawsuit.

Click here to review the Smith v. Merck Memorandum Opinion.

Judge Shipp’s ruling concluded that “[t]he information submitted by Plaintiffs shows that the sales representatives had similar responsibilities; that named plaintiffs were paid less than some allegedly similarly situated males; and that compensation decisions, although based in part on input from some direct managers, were finalized by a central, common office.”  The Court also cited statistical evidence the Plaintiffs had submitted that demonstrated that female sales reps earned on the average 1.4% less per year than males in the same roles.  Based on this evidence, the Court concluded that the lawsuit should go forward as a collective action.

Deborah K. Marcuse of Feinstein Doyle Payne & Kravec, LLC is co-lead counsel for Plaintiffs and the class in Smith v. Merck, as well as another nationwide gender class action filed on behalf of female sales representatives at Forest Pharmaceuticals.  That case, Barrett et al. v. Forest Laboratories, et al. (SDNY), was conditionally certified in 2015.

If you are concerned that your employer is not paying you the same as your male counterparts for performing the same duties, please contact Edward Feinstein or Deborah Marcuse for a confidential consultation.

Posted by Deborah K. Marcuse.

Saving for Retirement – New Federal Rule

White House Announces New Federal Rule to Protect People Saving for Retirement

April 6, 2016.  President Obama directed the Department of Labor to move forward with a proposed new federal rule that changes the standards for financial advisors.  Retirement advisors will be required to follow a “fiduciary standard” which means they must put their clients’ best interests before their own profits.

Under the old rule, financial advisors were not required to act in the best interests of their clients when giving retirement advice. Advisors could steer investors to investments with hidden fees and higher commissions.  The advisor would earn more and those saving for retirement would lose (and their retirement savings would suffer).  A system where investment firms benefit if they talk Americans into buying investments at a high cost, giving investors low returns, is unfair.

The White House Council of Economic Advisors (CEA) conducted a study (“The Effects of Conflicted Investment Advice on Retirement Savings“) that found that conflicts of interest cost middle-class families huge amounts of their hard earned savings. The CEA study found that this practice led to:

• 1 percentage point lower annual returns on retirement savings
• $17 billion of losses every year for working and middle class families

The new rule will assist those saving for retirement by reducing the hidden fees paid in 401(k) plans and other retirement investments. In the coming months, the Department of Labor will issue a notice of proposed rulemaking, beginning the process where it will seek public feedback on the best approach to modernize the rules on retirement advice and to set new standards.  The rule change is scheduled to take effect in January 2018.

If you are concerned about hidden fees in your retirement investments, please contact Joe Kravec, Jim Pietz or Joel Hurt for a free consultation.

Posted by McKean J. Evans.