Boston Symphony Orchestra’s top flute player is suing the group for paying her $70,000 less than her male woodwind counterpart, raising what looks like the first lawsuit filed under the Massachusetts Equal Pay Law that took effect July 1.
Elizabeth Rowe, who joined the BSO in 2004 after winning a blind audition for the role of principal flute, says in the lawsuit she’s asked for years to be paid the same as the principal oboe — the best comparison to her unique position — but the orchestra kept her pay well below that of her peer.
Rowe, an accomplished musician who also teaches at the New England Conservatory, says she spent the past six months documenting for orchestra officials the pay disparity and putting them on notice that the Massachusetts Equal Pay Law requires them to pay her the same as the oboist — who made $280,484 in 2016. But the orchestra took no action, according to the lawsuit.
So, when the 2016 equal pay law took effect this weekend after a two-year waiting period, Rowe’s lawyer filed the complaint with the Suffolk Superior Court clerk. Stamped by the court Monday at 10:07 a.m., her suit is thought to be the first equal pay claim filed under the new state law.
“It is a sad day when somebody with this degree of prominence and expertise and superb reputation has to file a lawsuit to try to make things right,” Rowe’s attorney Elizabeth A. Rodgers said in a statement to the Herald.
“She pointed them to the law and tried to resolve it internally,” Rodgers added. “She gave them every possible opportunity to do so from January to July. She gave them documentation and evidence with ample evidence of law and regulation. She regrets she had to address it in a lawsuit to get them to fix this problem.”
BSO spokeswoman Taryn Lott said in a statement the orchestra does not have a comment on the lawsuit “at this time.”
Rowe’s lawsuit contends that under the new equal pay law she should be paid no less than a male in a comparable position — and in the case of the orchestra, that position is the lead oboe player, who sits in the chair next to hers.
Rowe says the orchestra has used her as the “face of the BSO,” chosen her for featured solo appearances, public relations, donor meetings and used her to attract the public to concerts. Her accomplishments thus far in her career rival that of the principal oboe player in 2001 when he was hired and given a substantial contract, she said in the lawsuit.
Rowe also claims the BSO retaliated against her when she shared her concerns about pay inequality. In December 2017, the BSO asked her to be interviewed by Katie Couric for a National Geographic segment on the orchestra’s longtime practice of using blind auditions — a procedure of screening auditioning musicians from their evaluators to combat race and gender bias.
Rowe told the orchestra’s public relations staff she’d love to be interviewed and mentioned her concerns of salary discrimination at the BSO. The invitation was rescinded.
