Should THANK Melissa Francis for LEAVING that Changed Fox News History? – Why is that?
Melissa Francis, who quietly disappeared from Fox News in October 2020, received a $15-million settlement after she filed a gender-based, pay-disparity claim against the network.
The financial settlement, first reported Sunday by the Washington Post, came after Francis attempted to gather data on what other on-air employees earned at Fox News.
Francis has also filed a complaint with the New York State Department of Labor alleging that Fox News retaliated for her raising the equitable-pay issue.
Francis, 49, was a regular fixture on Fox News — where she was a panelist on the daytime chat show “Outnumbered” — and Fox Business Network from 2012-20.
A Fox News representative would not confirm the payment while noting the company is disputing the complaint Francis filed with the state.
“We parted ways with Melissa Francis over a year and a half ago and her allegations were entirely without merit,” the company said in a statement. “We have also fully cooperated with the New York State Department of Labor’s investigation and look forward to the completion of this matter.”
According to the Post, Francis collected salary information from former colleagues and agents in preparation for her contract negotiation in 2019. She determined that men were paid more than their female counterparts in similar roles on the network.
Francis’ lawyer asked Fox News to disclose the salaries of other Fox News on-air stars, which the company refused. She filed for arbitration in early 2020. An arbitrator asked Fox News for the salary information, setting an Oct. 7 deadline — which turned out to be Francis’ last day on the air.
The Times reported Francis’ unexplained departure on Oct. 22, 2020, at which time Fox News said she remained an employee at the company. The Post said she resigned Feb. 2, 2021.
In an interview with the Post, Francis said her concerns that men were paid far more than women at Fox News were dismissed when presented to Dianne Brandi, a former top executive at the network who allegedly said, “Women make less. It’s just a fact.”
A Fox News representative denied that Brandi, who handled many talent contract negotiations during her tenure, ever made such a statement.
The report of the payment to Francis, who did not respond to a request for comment, is a setback for the company’s efforts to improve its workplace image hurt by the revelations that its former chief executive Roger Ailes sexually harassed female employees.
Fox News paid anchor Gretchen Carlson $20 million to settle her sexual discrimination lawsuit against the company in 2016. The complaint led to the downfall of Ailes, who departed the network that year and died in 2017.
The company paid out settlements to other female employees who filed complaints. In 2017, Bill O’Reilly, the network’s biggest star at the time, personally paid $32 million to a contributor on his show who accused him of coercing her into a sexual relationship.
Fox News has since expanded its human resources department and made it easier for employees to file complaints. The network has also increased the number of female managers, which include Fox News Media Chief Executive Suzanne Scott.
“Over the last six years, Fox News has undergone a comprehensive overhaul of its entire workplace culture — including tripling the size of its HR department, promoting more women in the executive ranks, elevating women in on-air host positions, as well as launching multiple mentoring programs and employee resource groups for women,” the company said in a statement.
News
My Parents Humiliated Me at My Father’s Retirement Dinner Then My Husband Revealed Who He Really Was
Chapter 1: The Nobody My name is Diana Parker. I was thirty-two years old when my mother stood in front of 150 people at my father’s retirement party, leaned into a microphone, and made my marriage the punchline of the…
MY MOTHER TOLD ME NOT TO BRING MY SON TO EASTER AGAIN—THEN MY 13-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER STOOD UP AND SAID WHAT NONE OF THE ADULTS WOULD
Chapter 1: Don’t Bring Him It happened at a rented folding table covered in deviled egg crumbs, pastel napkins, plastic forks, and the shiny foil wrappers from Easter chocolate. The April wind moved through the dogwood trees behind my aunt’s…
MY FAMILY USED ME AS AN ATM, Until They Sold My Anniversary Gift and Learned I Was Done Paying
Chapter 1: The Good Daughter The smell of peppermint rinse and sterile latex was the permanent weather of my life. As a dentist, I spent my days working inside the smallest rooms of other people’s fear. I knew the exact…
MY HUSBAND GAVE ME AN “ALLOWANCE,” HIS MOTHER AUDITED MY GROCERY RECEIPTS—THEN THEY DROVE TO MOCK MY “TRAILER PARK” HOUSEWARMING
Chapter 1: The $3 Receipt Friday night in the Miller house always felt like a trial. Not dinner. Not family time. A trial. The kitchen table, a scuffed pine monster Linda insisted was “perfectly good,” was covered in crumpled receipts,…
MY NEWBORN WAS TURNING BLUE—MY HUSBAND LEFT FOR HAWAII AND SAID I WAS “JUST DRAMATIC”
Chapter 1: Blue Lips “Stop being so dramatic, Elena. He’s just coughing.” My mother-in-law said it like I had interrupted her breakfast, not like my three-day-old son was turning blue in my arms. Beatrice Vance stood in the middle of…
MY BILLIONAIRE FATHER DISOWNED ME AT MY OWN WEDDING—HE HAD NO IDEA THE “TRASH” HE MOCKED WAS ABOUT TO BECOME HIS BIGGEST REGRE
Chapter 1: Disowned Have you ever wondered what it feels like to have a billionaire father? Trust me, it is not the fairy tale people imagine. My name is Fiona Ashford. I was twenty-eight years old when my father stood…
End of content
No more pages to load
