Samwise High Tech Recruiting Newsletter
Friday, July 10, 2026
US labor market continues to be ‘low hire, low fire’
The U.S. labor market remains in “low hire, low fire” territory, with The Conference Board’s Employment Trends Index falling for the second consecutive month — a pattern that signals “slower payroll growth ahead,” according to economic research associate Jannik Schulz. Just 57,000 nonfarm payroll jobs were added in June, well below private-sector forecasts, with April and May figures revised down by a combined 74,000 jobs. Consumer pessimism is rising: 22.5% of respondents said “jobs are hard to get,” the highest reading since January 2021. Initial unemployment claims reached their largest monthly average of the year, though workers with AI skills continue to see strong demand.
WorkSmart settles EEOC claim it failed to hire, refer women per a client request
South Carolina staffing agency WorkSmart has agreed to pay $150,000 to settle a federal sex discrimination lawsuit after the EEOC alleged it refused to hire or refer women for laborer positions at a client’s facility from 2020 to 2023. The complaint states a client told WorkSmart “it would only accept male laborers” — and the agency complied. “Staffing agencies should not comply with discriminatory requests from their clients,” EEOC Regional Attorney Marsha Rucker said. WorkSmart, which calls itself a woman-owned company, denied wrongdoing. The case is one of several recent EEOC enforcement actions against staffing firms that accommodated client-driven discriminatory hiring preferences.
Men outearn women by more than $12K annually, data shows
The gender pay gap is widening in dollar terms even as more women join the workforce, a MyPerfectResume analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows. Women earned $0.82 per dollar men earned in 2025, and the uncontrolled annual gap grew more than 60% over 25 years to $12,324 — adding up to an estimated $671 billion aggregate shortfall. “As more women joined the full-time workforce, the per-worker difference compounded into a much larger estimated overall gap,” career expert Jasmine Escalera wrote. The gap deepens with age: women 45 and older earn $0.71 per dollar, and women executives earn just $0.69, per a Payscale report.
Nearly 7 in 10 workers say they didn’t get a raise in the past 6 months
Nearly 70% of employees say they didn’t receive a salary increase in the past six months, up from 65% a year earlier, according to a Morgan McKinley survey of 2,799 workers. Yet nearly half remain optimistic about getting a raise within the next year. The disconnect runs deep: 48% of employers say their organizations did raise pay, and three-quarters plan increases for specific roles. More than half of employers also kept new-hire offer salaries flat year-over-year. Morgan McKinley recommends companies “increase transparency around pay plans and workforce decisions” to close the perception gap, noting that 67% of employers reported turnover in the past six months.
Edward Jones pushes back on lawsuit challenging diversity program
Edward Jones is pushing back against a lawsuit challenging its “Goodknight” program — an initiative that offered financial incentives for transferring client accounts to female or diverse advisors — arguing that the plaintiff’s amended complaint undermines his case. A white male advisor originally sued on behalf of white men, but broadened the putative class to include “all White” financial advisors, a move Edward Jones says is self-contradictory given that white women were among those who benefited from the program. The case is part of a wave of “reverse discrimination” lawsuits targeting diversity programs since Trump administration executive orders. Separately, Edward Jones faces a pay discrimination suit from Black financial advisors.
DC Water to pay roughly $217,000 to settle claim it replaced HR worker with younger employee
The District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority must pay approximately $217,000 and overhaul its HR policies after the EEOC alleged it replaced an HR professional with a younger, less-qualified employee in September 2023, violating the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. DC Water’s settlement was one of several alleged instances of the organization replacing older workers. A federal consent decree bars further age discrimination, requires the creation of enhanced nondiscrimination policies, and mandates advanced training for DC Water’s HR department. “Older workers, like all workers, are entitled to be judged fairly on their own merits,” EEOC Regional Attorney Debra Lawrence said in a statement.
PIP’s proximity to plaintiff’s EEOC charge can’t save bias complaint, 3rd Circuit says
A Black former portfolio manager at BNY failed to show that his performance improvement plan constituted unlawful retaliation, the Third Circuit ruled, affirming summary judgment for the bank. The court found that the proximity of a PIP to an EEOC charge is not, by itself, sufficient evidence of retaliatory intent. BNY had eliminated his role in a reorganization — citing his status as the lowest-performing employee in the group — and distributed his responsibilities among existing staff rather than hiring a replacement. Employers can draw some comfort from the ruling: temporal closeness between a complaint and an adverse action alone will not sustain a retaliation claim.
Curated by JD · samwise.agency
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