Opinion ID: 149283
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Lack of Dietitian, Clerk, and Cook

Text: Hill first argues that he was discriminated against because the clerk and dietitian positions were eliminated after Soles retired. Hill also claims that Soles had an extra cook and that Hill did 7 No 09-5305 Hill v. Nicholson, et al. not. Hill’s claim fails because a reasonable jury could not find that Soles was “similarly situated” to Hill. For a plaintiff to show that a non-protected employee is similarly situated, he must “prove that all of the relevant aspects of his employment situation were nearly identical to those of [the non-minority’s] employment situation.” Ercegovich v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., 154 F.3d 344, 352 (6th Cir. 1998) (internal quotation marks omitted) (alterations in original). Hill worked at the VAMC during a different time period than Soles,2 however, and the position that Hill applied for had a different title and a pay grade three levels lower. Hill did testify that his and Soles’s positions had the same job description. Hill, however, did not provide any evidence as to the content of those job descriptions, nor is there any indication as to whether those descriptions give any insight into the quantity of work that Soles and Hill were expected to perform. In light of the fact that Soles and Hill occupied facially different positions, a jury would need more information before it could find sufficient similarity. Therefore, Hill has failed to produce evidence that Soles’s position was similar to his own in all relevant respects, and thereby Hill has failed to satisfy the fourth element of the prima facie case.