Highly Compensated Employees

  As a highly compensated employee, you have achieved a certain status in your career because of your experience, advanced skills, and exceptional talent. You also can sense when something is not quite right. Perhaps you’ve been slowly removed from important meetings, decision-making, and emails. Maybe you’ve been asked to train a new hire who is supposed to be there to assist you, but you suspect that person is your soon-to-be replacement. If you believe you are being forced out or prevented from transitioning into a higher role due to unfair discrimination, you may feel a sense of persecution and isolation. Such a tense and even toxic situation could very well affect your sense of judgment. The risk of taking action that seemingly justifies an employer’s unfair decisions only increases. This is why it is essential to contact an employment attorney you can trust to investigate what is happening with your best interests in mind.

Highly Compensated Employees Are Often Subject to Discrimination

Though illegal, systemic age discrimination among highly compensated employees over 50, especially over 60, is rampant in corporate America. Discrimination based on gender, race, sexual orientation, and disability is also widespread. Many highly compensated employees face discrimination based on their country of origin. This can apply to Americans who are prevented from advancing in their career with foreign-owned entities. For someone loyal, productive employee, feelings of pain and betrayal are natural when you are disrespected, brushed off, and suddenly deemed expendable or unworthy of promotion. Also, the loss of income and benefits can be incredibly disruptive and hurtful to you and your family, and finding a new position typically takes much longer for a highly compensated employee. Discrimination of any kind is both unethical and illegal, but it is also difficult to prove without a highly experienced employment lawyer working on your behalf.

How an Employment Attorney Can Help

  The first priority of an employment attorney should be to prevent further harm and leverage the employee into the best possible position should the worst-case scenario unfold. Every situation is unique, so the attorney must proceed carefully based on the specific facts and circumstances involved. The employment lawyer must take the time upfront to gain a 360-degree view of the case’s entire background. If something is missed during this phase of ingathering and analyzing information, it can have negative, long-term consequences. Ideally, your employment lawyer, when possible, will operate in the shadows. Often this puts the employee in the best possible position. Once an employer knows you have an attorney, they will bring in their lawyer, and access to critical information will be shut down and building a discrimination case becomes significantly more difficult.

Suppose you suspect your employer is planning to terminate you or stop you from moving into a more prominent role. In that case, you can maximize your need to hire a skilled employment attorney to protect your rights. We can help. We have the experience. Contact us today to schedule a consultation.