Opinion ID: 771988
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Existence of a Male Comparator

Text: 17 Marist cites to a decision from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals holding that in order to show equal skill, effort, and responsibility, a plaintiff must identify a particular male 'comparator' for purposes of the inquiry, Strag v. Bd. of Trs., 55 F.3d 943, 948 (4th Cir. 1995), and claims that no such comparison exists in this case. We express no opinion on the merits of such a rule, because we conclude that, even if we were to adopt it, plaintiff here has identified a specific male comparator. 18 Only two other professors were comparable to plaintiff in each of the five categories identified by the expert witnesses. Both were Assistant Professors who had approximately twenty years of service at Marist, taught in the Social and Biological Sciences Division, had tenure, and held a doctorate degree. Both members of this comparison group taught in the Psychology department. One was a woman, Marjorie Schratz, who was the highest-paid of the three; in the 1996-97 academic year her salary was $48,533. In the same academic year, the other member of the comparison group, Royce White, a man, was paid $46,168, which was more than plaintiff's salary of $44,900. We think that plaintiff identified in Professor White a specific male comparator. 19 In an effort to defeat this conclusion, Marist argues that the comparison should be confined to other professors in the Criminal Justice department, not to those in the entire Biological Sciences division. Marist's argument is that Professor White's position in a different department within the division requires greater skill, effort, and responsibility than plaintiff's position. 20 Whether two positions are substantially equivalent for Equal Pay Act purposes is a question for the jury. See Tomka, 66 F.3d at 1311 ([I]t is for the trier of fact to decide if [there] is a significant enough difference in responsibility to make the jobs unequal.); see also Hein v. Or. Coll. of Educ., 718 F.2d 910, 913 (9th Cir. 1983) (noting that whether two jobs are substantially equal is a question of fact). As noted above, the only witness to have relied on the departmental distinction was Dr. Poris and then only on the basis of content analysis. Dr. Poris's methodology in general, and content analysis in particular, came under significant attack at trial. See Lavin-McEleney, No. 96 Civ. 4081, slip op. at 4 (Dr. Poris analyzed the data . . . using a type of analysis called 'content analysis,' the validity of which was disputed at trial.). 21 The cases cited by Marist, in which courts found that the plaintiff had offered insufficient evidence that jobs in different departments were substantially equal, are distinguishable. See Fisher v. Vassar Coll., 70 F.3d 1420, 1452 (2d Cir. 1995) (noting that plaintiff had produced no evidence that she performed work equivalent to that of her comparator); Strag, 55 F.3d at 950 (rejecting a comparison between plaintiff's mathematics department and a male professor's biology department, absent a showing that the two positions entailed substantially equal skill, effort, and responsibility). 3 In contrast, plaintiff here presented substantial evidence at trial that the five variables used by her expert to isolate comparable positions accurately captured equality of skill, effort, and responsibility. Moreover, Dr. Parides testified that departmental differences within divisions were not associated with differences in salary. 22 We conclude that there was sufficient evidence for a reasonable juror to have found that Professor White's position was substantially equal to plaintiff's. We therefore believe that plaintiff has identified a male comparator.