Professor Lucy Marsh
Gender discrimination lawsuits: they’re not just for Biglaw firms!
The University of Denver Sturm College of Law was sued last week by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for underpaying at least eight of the women on its faculty. The suit comes after three years on wrangling on the issue, beginning when Professor Lucy Marsh learned — after 35 years at the school — that she was the lowest paid member of the faculty.
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That’s gotta hurt.
As described by Law.com, Marsh filed a complaint with the EEOC in 2013 and the Commission found in favor of Marsh:
The commission concluded that in October 2013 the average salary for female full-time law professors at Denver was $139,940, while men earned an average $159,721—a difference of nearly $20,000 and a “statistically significant amount,” according to the suit. No female law professors earned salaries that were greater than the average among men, the commission found.
The school countered that the disparity in pay was based on performance, and an independent consultant, hired by Denver, found pay was based on the following factors: current rank, performance evaluations, administrative roles, and age when a faculty member’s current rank was attained. But the EEOC found in August 2015 that the law school had violated the Equal Pay Act. The attempt to settle through mediation failed, and this lawsuit by the EEOC is the result.
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We’ve seen a real spike in lawsuits that tackle unequal pay in the legal profession, and it’s also a focus for the commission:
Mary Jo O’Neill, head of the EEOC’s Phoenix district office, said that enforcing the Equal Pay Act and closing the pay gap are priorities for the commission. “The guarantee of equal pay for equal work applies to the professional academic setting of a university just the same as any other workplace,” O’Neill said.
It will be interesting to see how the case develops.
EEOC Sues Univ. of Denver Law School Over Pay Disparity [Law.com]
EEOC To Sue Denver Law School For Underpaying Female Faculty [Tax Prof Blog]
Kathryn Rubino is an editor at Above the Law. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).