Mississippi — Workplace Discrimination

Employment discrimination claims in Mississippi alleging violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (race, color, religion, sex, national origin), the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (age 40+), the Americans with Disabilities Act, or the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act must be filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The EEOC enforces these federal statutes and accepts charges of discrimination on these bases. Charges must be filed within 180 days of the alleged discriminatory act in Mississippi, because the state does not have a Fair Employment Practices Agency with which the EEOC maintains a work-sharing agreement (states with such agencies allow 300 days).

Source: Filing a Charge of Discrimination, EEOC | How to File a Charge, EEOC | Filing a Complaint (Youth), EEOC

Mississippi has not enacted a comprehensive state employment discrimination statute for private-sector employers. In Thomas v. Southern Farm Bureau Life Insurance Company (2020), the Mississippi Supreme Court declined to create a public-policy exception to at-will employment for discrimination claims, holding that Title VII and the ADEA already provide statutory causes of action and noting that "discrimination claims must be brought under federal law" absent legislative creation of a state remedy. Employees alleging workplace discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age (40+), disability, or genetic information must rely on federal statutes enforced by the EEOC, not state law.

Source: Thomas v. Southern Farm Bureau Life Insurance Co., No. 2019-CA-00317-SCT (Miss. Aug. 13, 2020)

Mississippi enacted the Mississippi Equal Pay for Equal Work Act (Miss. Code § 71-17-1 et seq.) effective July 1, 2022, creating the state's only comprehensive private-sector employment discrimination protection. The Act prohibits employers from paying employees of opposite sexes unequal wages for equal work requiring equal skill, education, effort, and responsibility performed under similar working conditions.

Coverage and definitions

The Act applies to employers with five or more employees. "Employee" is defined narrowly: only individuals employed to work 40 or more hours per week qualify for protection under the statute. Part-time workers (fewer than 40 hours weekly) have no state-law claim under this Act, though they remain covered by the federal Equal Pay Act of 1963 (which has no hours threshold).

The statute defines "equal work" using the four-factor federal EPA framework—equal skill, education, effort, and responsibility performed under similar working conditions—and provides that published precedents from the U.S. Supreme Court, Fifth Circuit, and district courts embracing the circuit court deciding cases under the federal EPA are mandatory authority for Mississippi courts interpreting the state Act until the Mississippi Supreme Court or Court of Appeals rules to the contrary.

Permitted wage differentials

Pay differentials based on sex are lawful when the employer demonstrates payment was made pursuant to:

• A seniority system;
• A merit system;
• A system that measures earnings by quantity or quality of production; or
• Any other factor other than sex.

"Any other factor other than sex" expressly includes the employee's salary history or continuity of employment history, competition with other employers for the employee's services, and the extent to which the employee attempted to negotiate for higher wages. The inclusion of salary-history factors distinguishes Mississippi from states that prohibit salary-history inquiries; Mississippi employers may lawfully ask about and rely on prior compensation when setting wages.

Election-of-remedies requirement

The Act contains an unusual procedural constraint. An employee who brings a claim under the federal Equal Pay Act may not maintain a separate action under the Mississippi Act. If an employee brings a Mississippi claim first and later initiates a federal EPA claim, the state action is dismissed with prejudice. Employees seeking relief under the state Act must first waive any right to relief under the federal EPA.

This election-of-remedies rule is opposite to most state employment laws, which allow concurrent or successive claims. Practitioners advising employees on pay-discrimination claims must evaluate which forum offers better remedies before filing—the federal EPA allows two-year (or three-year for willful violations) lookback and potential liquidated damages; the state Act allows a two-year statute of limitations from the date the employee knew or should have known of the violation.

Civil enforcement and retaliation prohibition

Employees enforce the Act through civil suits filed in circuit court in the county where the discrimination occurred. The Act prohibits employers from discharging, discriminating against, or retaliating against any employee for invoking or assisting in enforcement of the Act. Employers who are found to be paying a wage differential in violation of the Act may not remedy the violation by reducing the wage rate of any employee.

The EEOC, in a July 1, 2022 publication, noted that Mississippi's new state law "only protects workers against sex discrimination in pay, is otherwise narrower than the federal protections available to workers in Mississippi and provides broad defenses to employers." Employees alleging pay discrimination on bases other than sex (race, color, religion, national origin, age, disability, genetic information) must rely exclusively on federal statutes—Mississippi has no state-law remedy for those claims.

Source: Miss. Code § 71-17-1 to 71-17-7, HB 770 (2022) | Equal Pay Protections for Mississippi Workers, EEOC