Opinion ID: 421169
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Manager Trainees

Text: 6 Manager trainees are hired both internally from the ranks of existing employees and externally from the civilian labor market. The only objective qualification is a high school diploma. 7 In our view the most important single fact presented to the district court is this: From July 1965, the effective date of Title VII, to January 1, 1973, the date just prior to Capaci's filing of discrimination charges, K & B hired or promoted 267 individuals to the position of manager trainee, of which 267 were male. The days of testimony that followed were consumed in part in determining whether or not this fact could be said to constitute statistically significant evidence of discrimination. 8 Dr. Gastwirth performed some rather sophisticated statistical tests for discrimination. He first determined a relevant labor market with which he could compare the proportion of females in management. Using 1970 census data, he looked to all managers in Louisiana and refined the comparison further by looking to experienced wholesale and retail managers, general merchandise retail managers, and department and sales managers. He made further refinements by looking to the census data for these categories in three separate geographic locations--New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and the remainder of the state--and weighting the figures by the number of stores in each region. He then took the lower bound of these geographical weightings to be conservative, 1 and excluded those trainees hired outside of Louisiana. He also looked to managers earning less than $7,000 in 1969, on the assumption that those earning more would not be interested in the manager trainee position paying between $5,980 and $6,500 at that time. In short, he arrived at a number of comparable segments of the labor force, which ranged from 16% to 29% female. With all of the manager categories, these percentage figures were conservative, since, as even Dr. Cranny admitted on cross-examination, they underestimated present female availability by reflecting past discriminatory employment decisions. 9 Using this data, Gastwirth computed the probability that K & B's selections could have been made in an unbiased or random manner. Regardless of which referent group was used, for the period 1965-1972 the probability calculated was consistently far less than one in a billion. 2 Indeed, the highest probability of unbiased hiring was 5.367 X 10 -20 , less than one in a billion billions. 10 Gastwirth performed comparable tests for manager trainees hired from 1973 through 1977, a period between the filing of the charge and the trial. During this period some female manager trainees were hired, but the vast majority of trainees chosen were male. The results of the tests, though considerably less dramatic than those for the 1965-1972 period, consistently showed the probability of such disparate hiring occurring by chance to be less than one in 10,000. 11 The EEOC also relied on applicant flow data, that is, data on the number of men and women hired compared with the number who actually applied for the job. Only applications from July 1976 through 1977 were made available through discovery. This information indicated that 19.2% of the applicants for manager trainee were female, within the 16%-29% range Gastwirth predicted using census data. However, women made up only 9.2% of those chosen. Sixteen percent of the female applicants were successful, compared with 37% of the males. Using a chi-square test, Gastwirth determined that the probability of such hiring occurring by chance was less than one in a thousand. 3 12 K & B attacked the EEOC statistical case in four ways. It argued that: (1) the government failed to consider that women might not want the job and through self-selection would not apply; (2) Dr. Gastwirth failed to make various refinements in the census data necessary to make accurate comparisons; (3) the statistical tests looked only to external hiring of manager trainees and failed to consider internal promotions; (4) tests using data broken down by year and geographic location showed vastly reduced or no statistical significance. We find these objections less than convincing. 13 Certainly there is some merit to the self-selection argument. The district court found that [t]he job requires the manager trainee to unload supply trucks, to put up stock, straighten up the store, and the work schedule includes night work, weekend and holiday work. 525 F.Supp. at 325. The court credited the testimony of Dr. Cranny, an industrial psychologist and labor economist, that such job conditions would substantially retard females from applying as compared to males. Id. Several witnesses also testified that females had selected themselves out of the manager trainee job or applicant pool. This testimony emphasized in particular the unwillingness of women to work the hours required of manager trainees. 14 Despite this evidence, and deferring completely to the trial judge in weighing the credibility of these witnesses, we have great trouble accepting self-selection as an explanation for the complete absence of women in the manager trainee program for the seven and one-half year period preceding the discrimination charge. There is no reason to believe that the female witnesses called were representative of all women in the labor market or employed by the defendant. By looking to other merchandising, wholesale and retail, and department and sales managers, Gastwirth's statistical tests were already corrected for self-selection to some extent, since all managers face hours and responsibilities that would not appeal to some women. Gastwirth testified that an applicant pool that was even 2% female would still have led to a finding of statistical significance for the 1965-1972 period. The applicant flow data indicated that 19.2% of manager trainee applicants were female, within the range found for other managers, and inconsistent with a theory of total self-selection. The defendant's witnesses also made clear that non-management and non-professional employees, 79% of whom are women, also have weekend and night duties and perform physical labor. Dr. Cranny stated that management trainees and assistant managers do much of the same work as the rest of the people in the organization do. 15 K & B maintains that the census data used by Gastwirth was not sufficiently refined to make his tests meaningful. The district court found that Dr. Gastwirth admitted that his groups include part time employees and the self employed, some of whom are not potential applicants for the manager trainee position, and that no data was available to him to make the refinements, and that [a]ll of the [Gastwirth comparison] groups included data on businesses not comparable to the K & B operation, such as boutiques and dress shops. 525 F.Supp. at 325, 328. 16 The use of census data is an appropriate method of demonstrating discrimination. Hazelwood School District v. United States, 433 U.S. 299, 97 S.Ct. 2736, 53 L.Ed.2d 768 (1977). The defendant would require refinements beyond that available in published statistics. A perfect statistical model is not required. Phillips v. Joint Legislative Committee, 637 F.2d 1014, 1025 (5th Cir.1981), cert. denied, 456 U.S. 960, 102 S.Ct. 2035, 72 L.Ed.2d 483 (1982); Vuyanich v. Republic National Bank of Dallas, 505 F.Supp. 224, 314 (N.D.Tex.1980). The defendant must do more than raise theoretical objections to the data or statistical approach taken; instead, the defendant should demonstrate how the errors affect the results, Vuyanich, supra, at 255-56, 306-07, particularly in cases where the plaintiff has demonstrated gross disparities in employer practices, id. at 357; International Brotherhood of Teamsters v. United States, 431 U.S. 324, 342 n. 23, 97 S.Ct. 1843, 1858 n. 23, 52 L.Ed.2d 396, 419 n. 23 (1977). In this case, the EEOC demonstrated that inclusion of self-employed persons actually increased the female percentage in the retail trade manager group from 15.44% to 18.72%. The Commission also points out that the general merchandise retail manager group it used, composed of 23.96% women statewide, does not include dress shops. Furthermore, there is nothing in the record suggesting that the census statistics systematically included stores likely to be managed by women, while excluding stores likely to be managed by men, such as gun shops or adult bookstores. It bears repeating that any applicant group composed of more than 2% women would have produced statistically significant results for the 1965-1972 period. 17 K & B contends that Gastwirth's statistics are largely irrelevant because they ignore the established practice of K & B to look first to its existing work force for new manager trainee candidates before going outside. 525 F.Supp. at 324. This argument is singularly unpersuasive for the 1965-72 period. In that period, 265 manager trainees, all male, were hired from the external labor force. Two manager trainees, both male, were promoted internally. Including internal availability and promotion would have only increased the statistical significance of the results for this period, particularly since women constituted 79% of the non-managerial and non-professional internal work force, a much higher percentage than that estimated for the relevant external labor force. Gastwirth also considered internal promotions along with external hiring for the 1973-1977 period in Manager Trainee Exhibits 12 and 13. Even without taking into account the higher proportion of females in the internal labor pool than in the external labor market, the probability of randomly selecting 20 females out of 365 persons hired directly or promoted from within was still less than 1 in 10,000. 18 Finally, K & B attempted to demonstrate that there was no statistically significant evidence of discrimination when the data was broken down by city or year or both. In our view, this was an unfair and obvious attempt to disaggregate that data to the point where it was difficult to demonstrate statistical significance. By fragmenting the data into small sample groups, the statistical tests became less probative. Wheeler v. City of Columbus, Mississippi, 686 F.2d 1144, 1151 (5th Cir.1982). Indeed, it became impossible to demonstrate significance with such small numbers in many instances, since even a record of hiring or promoting zero women would not yield statistically significant results. 4 There was no reason to fragment the data geographically, since all hiring decisions regarding manager trainees are made at the firm's New Orleans office, and liability is premised on across-the-board practices, id., occurring at all locations. Likewise, liability is premised on actions taken within the entire 1965-1977 period, and there was no reason to fragment the data by year. Aggregating the data as the plaintiff did was a much more reasonable approach, since liability under Title VII depends on whether the EEOC demonstrated a systemwide pattern or practice of disparate treatment, rather than the occurrence of isolated or 'accidental' or sporadic discriminatory acts. It had to establish ... [that] discrimination was the company's standard operating procedure--the regular rather than the unusual practice. International Brotherhood of Teamsters v. United States, 431 U.S. 324, 336, 97 S.Ct. 1843, 1855, 52 L.Ed.2d 396, 416 (1977).