Recent court decision finds employer still liable despite corrective actions.
In the recent lawsuit, Crawford v Carroll, the 11th Circuit Court found that an employer can not avoid liability by retroactively giving a pay raise. In the case an employee was denied a merit pay increase suffering an adverse employment action. The court held that even though the employer corrected the action and raised the pay rate retroactively, the retroactive increase could not “erase all injury associated with it, specifically the lost value and use of the funds during the time she was not receiving them”. The court continued by stating that retroactive pay raises can not undo the harm caused by discriminatory or retaliatory acts. Based on this decision the employee was allowed to proceed with her retaliation and race bias claim.