Five Guys Class Action Says Female Employees are Underpaid

A Pennsylvania woman says the Five Guys chain of fast food restaurants has been systematically discriminating against its female employees.

Plaintiff Jody Finefrock says she was fired in retaliation for calling attention to a purported disparity in compensation between male and female employees of Five Guys corporate-owned restaurants.

She is raising claims under federal and state anti-discrimination laws seeking compensation for a Class of female Five Guys employees.

Finefrock says she began her most recent tenure with Five Guys in 2012 at a corporate-owned store in Harrisburg, Pa. She started as a crew member, then rose through the ranks to become a General Manger.

Despite her good work and the promotions it earned her, Finefrock says she was “consistently paid less than her male colleagues who had the same title and performed the same work.”

Finefrock says when she started working for Five Guys in 2012, she became aware of another recently hired male crew member who was being paid a higher wage than hers. When she was later promoted to Shift Leader, she says her wage was increased to the same wage that the male employee was making as a Crew Member.

The same male colleague was later promoted to Shift Leader and given a wage $1.50 per hour higher than the wage Finefrock was making for performing the same work under the same job title, she claims.

In February 2013, Finefrock was promoted to Assistant General Manager and began to be paid a salary of $30,000 per year. While she was in that position, Five Guys hired a male employee under the same job title and paid him a salary of $35,000, she claims. Finefrock says she confronted the company’s district manager about the disparity, but he was unable to credibly explain it away.

In August 2013, Finefrock was promoted to General Manager of a Five Guys restaurant and given an increase in salary. At about the same time, she says she became aware of a male colleague who was also promoted to General Manager and was paid a salary $2,000 per year higher than Finefrock’s.

When Finefrock and two other female General Managers confronted their supervisors in April 2015 about the alleged discrepancies, the supervisors said they would investigate. But a few months later, Finefrock says she was put on a Performance Improvement Plan.

She was fired in September 2015. The stated reason for her firing was that she failed to meet the Performance Improvement Plan standards. But Finefrock believes she was fired in retaliation for raising the issue of gender-based pay discrimination among Five Guys employees.

Her Five Guys class action lawsuit raises claims under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act or PHRA.

Finefrock is proposing to represent two plaintiff Classes. The Title VII Class would represent all female employees who worked for Five Guys as restaurant-level management employees, including Shift Leaders, Assistant General Managers, and General Managers, during the applicable limitations period and through the date of Class certification.

The PHRA Class would cover all Class Members of the Title VII Class whose relevant Five Guys employment was within the state of Pennsylvania.

She seeks a damage award covering both back pay and front pay, punitive damages, pre- and post-judgment interest, court costs and attorneys’ fees, equitable relief, and any other relief the court deems proper.

Finefrock is represented by attorneys Derreck W. Cummings and Larry A. Weisberg of McCarthy Weisberg Cummings PC and by George A. Hanson and Alexander T. Ricke of Stueve Siegel Hanson LLP.

The Five Guys Gender Discrimination Class Action Lawsuit is Finefrock v. Five Guys Operations LLC, Case No. 1:17-cv-02214-SHR, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.