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ARTICLE · 27 OCTOBER 2026

Refusing To Hire Anyone Based On Gender Can Be Costly

Wilentz, Goldman & Spitzer
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A restaurant chain will pay over $1.1 million to settle EEOC allegations that it systematically refused to hire male applicants for front-of-house positions like servers, bartenders, and hosts. The case highlights how gender-based hiring practices, whether overt or subtle, violate Title VII's merit-based employment requirements.

United StatesEmployment and HR
Tracy Armstrong
Tracy Armstrong

Kickback Jack’s restaurants, will pay $1,111,300 to a class of male applicants (and furnish other relief) to settle a sex-based hiring discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

According to the EEOC’s suit, Kickback Jack’s restaurants systematically refused or failed to hire male applicants for non-managerial front-of-house positions, including server, bartender and host positions.

Of the more than 2,100 people employed in those positions at 19 locations, approximately 3% were male, and some restaurants had no male servers at all. The suit alleged that Kickback Jack’s had no legitimate business justification for failing to hire males in these positions and that the companies failed to comply with Title VII’s recordkeeping regulations.

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