Wall Street Grill to Pay $45,000 in EEOC Sexual Harassment Lawsuit

NEW YORK – KTG Hospitality, LLC, doing business as Wall Street Grill, a fine dining restaurant in Manhattan, will pay $45,000 to one former employee settling a sex discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, kitchen workers and managers at Wall Street Grill subjected a pastry cook to sexual overtures, verbal abuse, and unwanted physical contact. The suit also alleged that Wall Street Grill’s managers witnessed employees’ conduct, did nothing to prevent it, and contributed to the hostile work environment by watching pornography with male kitchen staff and by making lewd sexual jokes and comments.

“The EEOC is committed to holding employers accountable for sexual harassment in the hospitality industry and to ensuring every worker is protected under the law,” said Kimberly Cruz, regional attorney for the EEOC’s New York District Office. “The EEOC will continue to hold employers accountable when they fail to prevent or respond to unlawful harassment in the workplace.”

The restaurant’s alleged conduct violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on sex. The EEOC filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (EEOC v. KTG Hospitality, LLC, Civil Action No. 1:24-cv-07376) after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process.

In addition to $45,000 in monetary relief to the employee, the consent decree resolving the litigation enjoins Wall Street Grill from discriminating on the basis of sex in all phases of employment and requires it to create anti-discrimination policies and meaningful complaint procedures, train its employees in all aspects of sex discrimination in the workplace and retain an external human resources vendor to review complaints of sex discrimination in Wall Street Grill’s workplace and ensure compliance with its revised policies.

Betsy Rader, acting director of the EEOC’s New York District Office, said, “This settlement sends a clear message that sexual harassment has no place in the restaurant industry or any workplace. The EEOC is committed to enforcing Title VII to protect the rights of all workers.”

For more information on sex discrimination, including sexual harassment, please visit https://www.eeoc.gov/sexual-harassment.

The EEOC’s New York District Office is responsible for processing discrimination charges, administrative enforcement, and the conduct of agency litigation in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, northern New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Vermont. This case was investigated by the Buffalo Local Office.

The EEOC is the sole federal agency authorized to investigate and litigate against businesses and other private sector employers for violations of federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. For public sector employers, the EEOC shares jurisdiction with the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division; the EEOC is responsible for investigating charges against state and local government employers before referring them to DOJ for potential litigation. The EEOC also is responsible for coordinating the federal government’s employment antidiscrimination effort. More information about the EEOC is available at www.eeoc.gov. Stay connected with the latest EEOC news by subscribing to our email updates.