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Prince George’s County will pay a female engineer nearly $140,000 to settle claims of blatant, gender-based pay discrimination.

Joanna Smith had a degree in civil engineering and more than five years of experience under her belt when she applied for an engineer position in Prince George’s County, Maryland—which was ranked the most gender-equal state in the country last year. She was still paid considerably less than two male engineers in the same positions and a third male engineer with less experience and without a professional license, according to a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

“In discussions about pay discrimination, some people seek to attribute pay disparities to a woman’s occupational choice or an alleged failure to negotiate her salary,” EEOC Philadelphia district director Spencer H. Lewis, Jr. said in a statement. “This case dispels those justifications. Prince George’s County refused to allow Ms. Smith to negotiate a higher salary warranted by her experience and education in this scientific field, yet repeatedly and continuously paid male engineers, including less experienced ones, who were doing substantially equal or even less complex work, a higher salary.”

According to the suit, Smith was paid at the entry-level rate for an engineer III position and her attempt to negotiate was rebuffed. A county hiring official told her she couldn’t negotiate her salary, just two weeks before a male engineer was hired and paid his requested salary—$10,000 more than Smith’s—for equal work. A month later, a male engineer was promoted to the same level and also paid more than Smith. By the next year, a male engineer in an “engineer 1” position was making more money than Smith, though he was doing less complex work and lacked a professional license.

“We filed this lawsuit because Prince George’s County not only refused Ms. Smith’s efforts to negotiate a higher salary commensurate with her experience and education, it then continually paid her less than it paid her male colleagues even though she did equal, and in some cases, more complex and superior work,” said EEOC attorney Maria Salacuse.

In addition to paying Smith $139,633 in lost wages and increasing her salary, Prince George’s County will have to hire a consultant to ensure that salary practice comply with the Equal Pay Act and train county officials about federal anti-discrimination laws.

“We recognize that the recent ruling by the United States District Court exposed outdated policies and practices in our merit system that are a legacy from decades of our government’s history,” County Executive Rushern Baker said in a statement.

Statewide, Maryland women are paid about 84 percent what men earn.