Kane’s Furniture to Pay Nearly $1.5 Million in EEOC Sex Discrimination Lawsuit

MIAMI – Kane’s Furniture, LLC, a Florida-based furniture retail company, will pay $1,482,748.00 in monetary relief and provide significant equitable relief to settle a federal class sex discrimination lawsuit, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced today.

In its lawsuit, the EEOC charged that since at least 2021, Kane’s Furniture implemented a discriminatory policy of not hiring female applicants for driver and warehouse positions at their distribution center or any of their eighteen retail locations across Florida. The lawsuit charged that recruiters expressly screened women out of the hiring process.

Such alleged conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The EEOC filed suit (EEOC v. Kane’s Furniture, LLC, Civil Action No.: 8:23-cv-02067-SDM-NHA) in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Tampa Division after first attempting to reach a voluntary pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process. 

In addition to providing monetary relief to the class of female applicants, the three-year consent decree settling the case requires Kane’s Furniture to implement equitable relief, including: implementing new hiring practices and EEO policies; hiring an independent expert to oversee training, investigate and review complaints of sex discrimination, and ensure compliance with the terms of the consent decree; and annual reporting of any complaints of discrimination to the EEOC.

“Sixty years after passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed job discrimination based on sex, some employers still blatantly refuse to hire women,” said EEOC Chair Charlotte A. Burrows. “This resolution helps advance the bedrock American principle of equal employment opportunity for all.”

“Kane’s overlooked qualified applicants simply because of their sex,” said EEOC Assistant Regional Attorney Beatriz Andre, who supervised the litigation. “This resolution ensures that women will have equal opportunity to employment, specifically in jobs in which they are all too often excluded.”

EEOC Miami District Director Evangeline Hawthorne said, “It is imperative that the EEOC works to remove hurdles women face when trying to find employment solely because of their sex. This settlement demonstrates the EEOC’s commitment to eliminating barriers in recruitment and hiring, including the too-common practice of excluding individuals from a category of jobs because of their protected class.”

For more information on sex discrimination, please visit www.eeoc.gov/sex-based-discrimination.

The Miami District Office’s jurisdiction includes Florida, Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands.

The EEOC prevents and remedies unlawful employment discrimination and advances equal opportunity for all. More information is available at www.eeoc.gov. Stay connected with the latest EEOC news by subscribing to our email updates.