Spanish Race Caller Sues NYRA Over Wage Inequity Compared To White Counterpart

Race caller Luis Grandison filed a lawsuit against the New York Racing Association in the Brooklyn Federal Court on Tuesday, alleging that he was paid less than half as much as his white, English-speaking counterparts, reports the New York Daily News.

The suit states that Grandison was paid an annual salary of $60,000, while his white, English-speaking counterpart Larry Collmus has a salary estimated to be over $200,000.

Grandison, a black native of Panama, had been employed by NYRA to call races in Spanish since 2014. He requested and was denied a raise in 2018. This year, Grandison was furloughed in March due to the coronavirus pandemic. He was terminated in June, prior to the resumption of racing in the state of New York.

“Grandison has performed the exact same primary duty of race calling … at NYRA in Spanish that his white American counterparts performed in English in the same racetracks, under the same management, using the same oratory skills, and using the same NYRA simulcast network,” the suit reads. “The only difference between Grandison and, for example, Larry Collmus is that the former is a Black Latino speaking in Spanish whereas the latter is a white American speaking in English. Their primary work duty of race calling was otherwise identical.”