Your Tax Dollars at Work: Veteran Former Vineyard Vines Employee Sues for Age and Gender Discrimination.

Nantucket red will never be the same. Former Vineyard Vines executive Anne Dauer has sued the preppy Fairfield County clothing manufacturer and its founders for age and gender discrimination in a federal lawsuit. Dauer alleges the company favored young men over experienced female employees.

Dauer’s complaint, according to Daniela Altimari’s Hartford Courant story, claims co-founder Ian Murray often mewled that there were “too many middle-age women around the table” when executives met. Dauer also alleges that young men were paid better than more experienced women.

In 2014, Governor Dannel P. Malloy’s administration gave the company a low interest forgivable $6 million loan to build a new headquarters in Stamford. The company could also be eligible “for $8 million in state tax credits, as well as $500,000 in sales and use tax exemptions,” according to The Courant.

Malloy hailed the crony capitalism deal as a “great Connecticut story of two brothers who, fed up with corporate life and determined to make it on their own, began selling their own line of ties nearly 20 years ago.” Co-founder Shep Murray declared at the time, “Our new office space will put into practice the core values on which we founded Vineyard Vines, one of which is making Vineyard Vines a great place to work.” Dauer disagrees.