A federal judge has entered a default judgment of $118,483 against a Hackensack debt collection firm in a pregnancy discrimination case brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

According to the EEOC's lawsuit, Receivable Management, doing business as Kramer and Associates, rescinded its offer to promote a female employee after she announced that she was pregnant. The employee was told that she was not going to be promoted because the owners of the company did not think that a pregnant woman could handle the stress or the long hours of a management position.

Basing employment decisions on an employee's pregnancy violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. The EEOC filed suit in 2015 (EEOC v. Receivable Management, Inc., d/b/a Kramer and Associates, Case No. 2:15-cv-01997-SDW-SCM) after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process.

"Making employment decisions based on the assumption that pregnancy somehow diminishes a woman's ability to perform her job is unacceptable," said EEOC Senior Trial Attorney Rosemary DiSavino.