The Chronicle of Higher Education reports today that
40 white male professors who brought a discrimination suit against Northern Arizona University 11 years ago are entitled to $1.4-million in back pay and raises. The professors alleged that the university had discriminated against them in a pay-equity plan by giving raises of up to $3,000 each to certain minority and female professors, but giving no raises to them.
More specifically, the Ninth Circuit decided several years ago that the 40 white male profs were entitled to have a jury consider their claim that “the raises given were higher than necessary to make up for past inequities.”
The professors elected to have that decision made by a fact-finder instead of a jury.
The fact-finder in the case, Senior Judge Robert C. Broomfield, of the U.S. District Court for Arizona, agreed with the 40 white male professors that the raises “went beyond attaining a balance” (The Chronicle, July 16, 2004).
By overcompensating women and members of minority groups, Judge Broomfield ruled, the university had violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employers from discriminating on the basis of race or sex. He ordered a separate trial to decide damages.
Last Wednesday Judge Broomfield decided that the university, which said it had addressed the professors’ concerns in the mid-1990s by providing $693,000 in retroactive pay increases to the white professors, had not gone far enough. He instead concluded that the professors were still owed a combined total of $1.4-million.
Sometimes, discrimination doesn’t pay. If every institution were forced to pay for the privilege of discriminating, there would be far less of it.
