Opinion ID: 678821
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Turner

Text: 63 Regarding William Turner, the evidence permitted the jury to make the following findings. Brinkley-Obu performed the responsibilities of HQAS (when the position of Manager did not exist) beginning in March 1988 as an E-2 for $39,540 a year. When she became the permanent HQAS in charge of Quality Control in August 1988 she received $41,904 at an A-3 level. Turner assumed Brinkley-Obu's responsibilities in October 1988 on an acting basis at a salary of $44,040 at an E-3 level. In February 1989, right before Brinkley-Obu returned from maternity leave, Smith created a managerial position consisting of those same responsibilities, promoted Turner to an OD level, and gave him an $18,000 raise (40% + increase) to $62,040. Turner took leave in November, only nine months later, and left HTI in April 1990. In April, Brinkley-Obu resumed the Hardware responsibilities as Hardware Quality Assurance Manager at an OC rather than an OD level, making only $44,604. In July she began to receive $49,836. Several months after she took on the Software responsibilities, HTI raised her salary to $54,360. Tovsen added Quality Control to her work load in January 1992 without a corresponding pay increase. Finally, in September 1992, she began earning $57,624--an amount approximately $5,000 less than Turner's salary for handling fewer managerial responsibilities. 64 The date that Turner left HTI's employ is not relevant to the evidentiary context as noted above. The relevant consideration is the fact that Brinkley-Obu continued to be underpaid by HTI until the time she filed the suit. HTI has noted that, while Turner was employed by HTI, he and Brinkley-Obu were always in a superior-subordinate relationship to each other, preventing a showing of substantial equality. The jobs Brinkley-Obu and Turner were performing simultaneously, however, do not form the basis of her comparison. Rather, Brinkley-Obu compares discrete time periods when she and Turner were performing the same responsibilities, whether she was his predecessor or successor. Sufficient evidence supports the jury's verdict that HTI violated the Equal Pay Act with respect to Turner in payments for the two years prior to her filing suit. 65 Additional evidence discussed below supports the jury's Title VII verdict in favor of Brinkley-Obu. Brinkley-Obu's relationship with Smith; their discussions about her salary; Brinkley-Obu's loss of responsibility while on maternity leave; Turner's inexplicable $18,000 raise for doing the same work Brinkley-Obu had been doing before she took leave; Brinkley-Obu's supervisor's explicit comments that she needed to choose between having a career and being a mama; and the hostile atmosphere Brinkley-Obu encountered when she returned to work, all support the jury's finding of intentional discrimination based on sex under Title VII. Under the facts, a reasonable jury could conclude that HTI's suggestion that Turner was paid more because of factors other than sex was pretextual and that HTI's persistence in paying Brinkley-Obu unequal wages for the substantially equal work she was performing was motivated by discriminatory intent.