Moving company that hires student-athletes in Fresno accused of age discrimination

A San Luis Obispo moving company that built its brand on providing careers for student-athletes is being sued by the federal government for age discrimination.

In a lawsuit filed on Sept. 29, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleged that since at least 2017, Meathead Movers “systematically and intentionally engaged” in only hiring employees under the age of 40 for moving, packing and customer service positions companywide and denied qualified applicants over the age of 40 because of their age.

The company was founded in 1997 by brothers Aaron and Evan Steed, as a way to earn extra cash in a job that worked around their school and athletic commitments, according to the company’s website. Over the past 26 years, it has grown to include operations as far south as Orange County and east to Fresno County.

The lawsuit alleged the company implicitly and explicitly discriminated against hiring people over 40 through marketing, incentives for employee referrals, subjective hiring criteria and its brand as “student-athlete movers.”

The agency requested a permanent injunction to prevent the company from engaging in age discrimination in its hiring and marketing. It also requested the company “make whole a class of qualified aggrieved individuals age 40 and over adversely affected by (Meathead Movers’) discrimination” and pay them back pay and damages, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit does not have a complainant or specific person that its allegations are based on.

Meathead Movers CEO Aaron Steed told The Tribune the agency has never received a complaint about the company and isn’t sure how or why Meathead Movers — which the Obama Administration recognized as one of 100 companies who impact the economy and can inspire young entrepreneurs to start their own businesses in 2011 — is being targeted.

“Honestly I’m just kind of baffled,” he said. “It feels like an assault on my business, my employees and the American dream.”

Federal lawsuit alleges local moving company excluded people over 40 from hiring pool

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission accused the company of “a pattern or practice of discrimination against qualified prospective and actual applicants in the protected age group because of their age in hiring and recruitment for moving, packing and customer service positions companywide.”

The company denied qualified applicants because of their age, the lawsuit said, and indicated in advertisements the company prefers young employees.

The company’s recruitment practices “disproportionately” target individuals under 40 and excludes those older from being recruited and hired, the lawsuit said. The company also “maintained a standard operating procedure” of denying employment applicants who were more than 40 years old, the lawsuit alleged.

Branding itself as a company that hires and employs student-athlete movers, exclusively depicting young people in marketing materials and hiring externally only for entry-level positions while promoting from within all contribute to the company’s illegal age discrimination tactics, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit also labeled various company practices as discriminatory, among them instructing employees, who are mostly individuals in their 20s, to recruit other applicants “where you would hang out,” seeking out student-athletes at colleges and gyms, offering incentives to employees who refer successful applicants, requiring applicants to submit applications in-person and asking for school enrollment information on applications.

The lawsuit said the company excludes applicants with moving experience because of their age while applying objective and subjective hiring criteria differently to young applicants and applicants over 40.

As an example, the lawsuit accused Meathead Movers of “advertising ‘flexible hours’ that ‘work with your school schedule’ but rejecting an applicant in the protected age group during the interview process because the applicant was unavailable part of one day per week.”

The lawsuit alleged Meathead Movers’ exclusion of employees over 40 is intentional.

It said the company encouraged hiring officials to screen out applicants over 40 throughout the hiring process, told unsuccessful applicants over 40 they were old and asked how they felt about working with younger employees and told older applicants that the company only hires “young” people or “college-aged” student-athletes.

For example, the lawsuit said, Meathead Movers’ hiring officials told applicants during job interviews that Meathead Movers only hires students, but a qualified student applicant who was older than 40 was rejected because he was “older than most of the students (they) hire.”

The company told other older applicants the company was looking to hire younger people because of the heavy lifting involved with the job, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit alleged company interview notes regarding an applicant over 40 said, “I feel like (she) is very qualified for the position. Her prior experience would suggest she will excel in her position here. I do think she is a little intimidated by the age of the employees who work here. And although I personally think it is immoral/unethical, I do not think she is a good cultural fit because of her age.”

The lawsuit said the representation of employees over 40 within the company is below what would be expected given the age group’s representation in the company’s several locations throughout the state.

Local moving company founded by SLO brothers in 1997

The Steed brothers launched Meathead Movers when the pair were San Luis Obispo High School students in 1997, according to the company’s website.

“Before they knew it, Aaron and Evan were supporting themselves financially and employing their friends on the wrestling and football teams,” the company website says.

“We’re giving Cuesta and Cal Poly students the opportunity to support themselves through college,” Aaron Steed told The Tribune in 2001. “They earn $10 to $15 an hour, they get to set their own hours and they get tipped on top of that. ... And we work around their school and sports schedules.”

“Being able to give students — my peers — the opportunity to go to college and have enough money is absolutely awesome,” he said. “I love it. They love it.”

The company quickly grew and expanded throughout the state.

By 2021, Meathead Movers had moving operations in San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Orange and Fresno counties, as well as in Bakersfield and Temecula, and storage operations in San Luis Obispo and Oxnard, according to its website.

Meathead Movers’ headquarters is now based in Fresno. The company’s office in San Luis Obispo is located at 3600 South Higuera St. The company also owns Meathead Wine Storage in San Luis Obispo, located at 4468 Broad St., No. 110.

According to archived website snapshots from August 2018 through April 2, the company’s about page said its “founding principle is to support current and former student-athletes working in pursuit of their dream career path, and that will never change.”

But that did change by the following month.

A snapshot of the website in May showed the same sentence now said the company’s “founding principle is to support athletes working in pursuit of their dream career path” — dropping the mention of “student” from the company’s about page.

Steed told The Tribune the company changed the language to focus more on the athleticism that the job requires.

“I want to have a company that is fair, equitable and inclusive,” he said. “I’m willing to change and evolve and grow.”

Steed said the company has employees older than 40 and has never participated in any kind of discrimination.

In 2012, Steed told Mustang News, Cal Poly’s student-run news organization, that the company did not require employees to be an athlete, play a sport or be a man.

“That would be discrimination,” Steed told Mustang News at the time. “(Employees) need to be strong enough to move things and jog to get more.”

Jogging during the move is what sets Meathead Movers apart from its competitors, Steed told The Tribune on Tuesday, because it guarantees a quicker move and customer satisfaction.

“In order to move heavy things up and down stairs all day and then be required to jog when carrying anything and treat your clients like gold, you have to be fit and love to work out and love customer service,“ Steed said. “We’ll hire anyone of any age or race that wants to do that job and can do it.”

Prior to their first move, Meathead Movers enrolls employees in “Meathead University,” which is described as a “military-inspired training program with over 400 procedures on everything you need to know to create the most memorable and smooth moving experiences,” according to the website.

Steed said he felt the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s weaponization of Meathead Movers’ branding toward student-athletes is “offensive.”

Steed himself is an athlete over 40 who competes in jiu-jitsu, he said, and there are many people 40 or older attending school.

“There’s a lot of companies out there that have college or student or athlete in their name, too,” Steed said. “I really don’t know why they’re picking on us, especially since there hasn’t been a claimant. It feels personal.”

Steed said he did not have knowledge of the specific allegations outlined as examples in the lawsuit.

Federal agency began targeting company in 2017, CEO says

Steed said the first time he received notice his company was being investigated by the Equal Opportunity Commission (EEOC) was in 2017.

He said when he received the notification, he spoke with his lawyer who said the company had nothing to worry about because it didn’t engage in discriminatory practices.

But in 2019, the agency said the company needed to pay a $15 million fine.

“It just was completely shocking, bewildering from there,” Steed said, adding that himself and the company could not afford to pay that fine. “What is so bewildering about this is that there isn’t even a claimant. No one has raised their hand and said that they were discriminated against from my company. The EEOC brought this on themselves.”

Steed said he has tried mediation with the agency several times over the years, but the agency has only tried to get him to agree to pay a fine he cannot afford.

“I really don’t know what to do,” Steed said. “They’re not willing to consider any of our information, our ability to pay. We have not done any discrimination.”

Steed said the lawsuit is “precedent setting” and has potential to affect trade businesses across the country.

“If EEOC can bring forth a demand and litigation like this without there even being a complaint, it puts all companies that have any sort of physical requirement on real shaky ground to do business,” he said.

SLO moving company launches GoFundMe to help pay for defense

In response to the lawsuit, Meathead Movers has launched a GoFundMe campaign to help defend itself against the litigation filed by the U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission, the company said in a news release on Tuesday.

“Meathead Movers, a company with a 26-year unwavering commitment to ethical practices and community service, including significant work with domestic violence shelters, refuses to succumb to these baseless allegations,” the company said in the release. “The company has decided to fight back to protect its values, its reputation, and its contribution to the community.”

The company regularly holds drives and fundraisers to help people in crisis, with its most recent drive seeking donations for survivors of the Maui wildfires in August.

The GoFundMe campaign is “a rallying call to preserve the American dream of small-business ownership and to stand up against unjust legal challenges,” the company said.

Meathead Movers said 100% of the donations received will be allocated toward legal expenses.

“It’s worth fighting for, it really is,” Steed said. “I just never thought in a million years that our own federal government would be my greatest adversary.”

To learn more about the campaign, visit gofundme.com/f/legal-expenses-to-fight-against-the-eeoc.