Pine Valley Golf Club agrees to settlement in gender-based discrimination lawsuit

A prestigious Camden County golf club has agreed to a settlement in a gender-based discrimination complaint filed last year by the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights.

As part of the settlement, Pine Valley Golf Club will end discriminatory hiring, housing, and membership practices, as well as educate its workforce about the requirements of the state’s antidiscrimination laws, the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office said. In addition, the club has agreed to pay $100,000 to the Division on Civil Rights, and endow two new scholarships worth a combined $100,000 to support women’s participation in golf.

Filed last April, the complaint alleged that the male-dominated club broke the New Jersey law against discrimination by banning women from becoming members, keeping women from using club facilities, and preventing women from owning or leasing housing on its land unless they co-owned the property with a man. During the Division on Civil Rights’ investigation, the club began allowing women to become members, the Attorney General’s Office said.

A club representative could not immediately be reached for comment.

According to the complaint, the club recruited employees based on referrals from its mostly male workforce, resulting in the club having mostly male staff. Women, the complaint said, made up less than 4% of the club’s workforce, and often were working in positions in which they did not interact with members.

The complaint also alleged that the club had illegal policies that barred men from wearing earrings, and kept workers from discussing their pay.

Under the settlement, the club has agreed to discontinue those practices. It will also publicly post job openings “such that they are equally accessible to people of all genders,” and must advertise a minimum of 75% of those openings in at least two major online job posting websites, officials said. Word-of-mouth recruitment, as the complaint alleged was used, can no longer be relied upon as the club’s main method for hiring.

In order to ensure compliance with the agreement, the club will be required to submit annual reports detailing changes in employment and housing, official said.

New Jersey law prohibits discrimination in housing, employment, and “places of public accommodation” based on gender, sex, gender identity, gender expression, and other characteristics. The club, the complaint contended, is a place of public accommodation because it owned much of the land in the Borough of Pine Valley, which later became part of the Borough of Pine Hill following a consolidation. As a result of how closely intertwined the club was with the borough, it was not “distinctly private,” the complaint said.

“The Division on Civil Rights continues to work tirelessly to end the abhorrent legacies of exclusion and misogyny,” New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin said in a statement. “New Jersey will not tolerate gender-based discrimination, and those who violate our laws will be held accountable.”

Founded in 1913, the club is consistently considered to be one of the best golf courses in the world. This week, Golf Digest named the club the No. 1 golf course in America for 2023, a distinction it has held often, and most recently every year since 2017.