The Maryland Insurance Administration, an independentstate agency that regulates Maryland's insurance industry andenforces insurance laws, violated federal law by paying femaleemployees lower wages than men, the U.S. Equal EmploymentOpportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit it announced April 23. Enforcement of equal pay lawsand targeting compensation systems and practices that discriminatebased on gender is of one of six national priorities identified bythe EEOC's Strategic Enforcement Plan.

The EEOC says that since at least December 2009, the MarylandInsurance Administration paid Alexandra Cordaro, Mary Jo Rogers,Marlene Green and a class of similarly situated femaleinvestigators and enforcement officers lower wages than it paid totheir male counterparts who were doing substantially equal workunder similar working conditions. The alleged wage discriminationtook place at the insurance administration's Baltimore office.

The alleged conduct violates the Equal Pay Act of 1963 (EPA),which prohibits discrimination in compensation based on sex.According to the EEOC, the federal agency first attempted to reacha pre-litigation settlement before filing suit in the U.S. DistrictCourt for the District of Maryland, Northern Division (EEOC v.Maryland Insurance Administration, Civil Action No.1:15-cv-01091-JFM).