Bank of America called ‘Bro’s Club’ in female employee’s lawsuit

Charlotte-based Bank of America has been sued by a female managing director who says the company treats women in that role like “second-class citizens” and pays them substantially less than their male counterparts.

Megan Messina, 42, who’s been with the bank since 2007 and made managing director in 2011, said the man promoted alongside her last year got a bonus 3-1/2 the size of hers, according to her complaint Monday in Manhattan federal court.

Her male supervisor “made it clear that she was not welcome within his subordinate ‘bro’s club’ of all-male sycophants,” Messina said. Throughout 2015, he consistently excluded her from e-mails, meetings, dinners and get-togethers with the 10 men he was overseeing, she said.

“As the only woman in a sea of men,” Messina “never stood a chance to be included and therefore never stood a chance to succeed,” she said.

After she complained to supervisors repeatedly, the company retaliated against her by placing her on administrative leave, according to her complaint. The suit says Messina lives in New York.

Messina’s bonus for 2015 was $1.55 million while a male colleague with the same title got $5.5 million, “an astonishing difference” for work “requiring equal skill, effort and responsibility,” according to the complaint.

“We take all allegations of inappropriate behavior seriously and investigate them thoroughly,” Bill Halldin, a spokesman for Bank of America, said Tuesday.

The case is Messina v. Bank of America Corp., 1:16- cv-03653, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

This story was originally published May 17, 2016 at 1:33 PM with the headline "Bank of America called ‘Bro’s Club’ in female employee’s lawsuit."