A former employee of Andrew Yang’s education company claims the 2020 presidential candidate fired her after she confronted him about a gender pay gap.
The unnamed woman told BuzzFeed News that she was being paid significantly less than her male counterparts while doing similar jobs. Records show the woman was making $87,000 per year while her male colleagues earned $125,000 plus relocation bonuses of up to $50,000. She said the 44-year-old Yang praised her performance in the workplace but turned on her when she confronted him about the pay gap.
“Andrew always spoke positively of my work and my value to the company. This changed only when I approached him about the disparity of my salary compared to male colleagues in similar roles,” she said, adding, “I believe Andrew fired me as retaliation for asking to be paid a salary that was still significantly less than what he was paying my male counterparts.”
The woman claimed she was awarded a settlement from Kaplan, the education firm that bought Yang’s company, because he had broken a contract and “acted in a discriminatory manner.”
She said it is “disheartening” to see Yang celebrated during his presidential bid.
“In my experience, Andrew is yet another businessman who doesn’t think that women deserve to be compensated the same as men for the same work,” she said. “Watching him disingenuously promote himself as a feminist candidate has been extremely disheartening.”
Yang’s campaign denied the claims. A campaign representative, S.Y. Lee, said, “Like many CEOs, Andrew Yang has had the unfortunate task of letting staff go who did not meet the organization’s standards. The information provided by the letter-writer does not reflect the reality of the situation.”
The campaign also put BuzzFeed in touch with another of Yang’s former female employees who said that the woman and her male coworkers “weren’t in the same role.” The employee added, “I never saw or experienced this type of discrimination.”
This is the second time that Yang has been accused of gender bias in the workplace. Earlier in his campaign, Kimberly Watkins claimed she was given a settlement because Yang fired her after her marriage because he believed she would work less.
Yang also denied her claim at the time, saying, “I’m happy to say, I’ve had so many phenomenal women leaders that have elevated me and my organizations at every phase of my career, and if I was that kind of person I would never have had any success.”
Yang is one of 18 Democrats in the presidential primary. He is registering at 2.3% support, according to the RealClearPolitics national average of polls.
