Andrew Yang accused of discriminating against female employee at education company

Democratic presidential candidate and entrepreneur Andrew Yang has been accused of paying a female employee at a lower rate and firing her after being questioned about the matter.

BuzzFeed News on Wednesday detailed allegations from an unnamed woman at Manhattan GMAT, a tutoring company that has since been acquired by Kaplan Inc. She claimed in a termination lawsuit that she was fired by Yang after she raised questions about why she was paid less than two similar male employees.

“Andrew always spoke positively of my work and my value to the company,” she told BuzzFeed News. “This changed only when I approached him about the disparity of my salary compared to male colleagues in similar roles.”

“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 unnamed former employee continued.

Kaplan eventually settled the lawsuit, though Yang disputes that the woman was actually at the same level as the two male employees she referred to in her complaints.

“Like many CEOs, Andrew Yang has had the unfortunate task of letting staff go who did not meet the organization’s standards,” his campaign told The Hill. “The information provided by the letter-writer does not reflect the reality of the situation.”

A current female employee with the company who was directed to BuzzFeed by Yang’s campaign told the news outlet that the woman was mistaken in her assertion that she and her male colleagues were in the same role.

“I never saw or experienced this type of discrimination,” the woman, who also wanted to remain anonymous, told BuzzFeed of the former employee’s allegations, adding that the former employee and her male counterparts “weren’t in the same role.”

The former employee’s allegation comes just two months after another woman who previously worked for Yang alleged that she had been fired from the same company after getting married.

Yang denied those allegations during an appearance on ABC’s “The View,” saying at the time, “There is zero truth to it. 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.”