Opinion ID: 398814
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Salary Evidence

Text: 27 The appellant introduced a series of exhibits comparing the mean salary of Prudential employees hired in 1973 through 1978 and still on the payroll in 1978. The exhibits were prepared by selecting from a 1978 list of Prudential employees all black employees hired in 1973. The weekly salaries of these employees were added together and the sum was then divided by the number of employees producing a mean salary for a black employee at Prudential hired in 1973 and still with Prudential 5 years later. This process was repeated for white employees and black employees hired in each year, 1973 through 1978 inclusive, and still with Prudential. This exercise showed that when compared to black employees hired in the same year, white employees had a greater mean weekly salary. See 499 F.Supp. at 449. 28 The district judge characterized the appellant's series of exhibits as a naked comparison of average weekly salaries without regard to level of skill, education and training (from which n)o meaningful conclusion can be drawn, much less a prima facie case. 9 Id. We agree. The appellant's statistical evidence is deficient because it fails to take into account the fact that a number of factors operate simultaneously to influence the amount of salary (an employee) receives. Wilkins, 654 F.2d at 402. The discrepancies between the mean salary of black employees and the mean salary of white employees hired in specific years may be explained by any number of nondiscriminatory factors. Different job levels, different skill levels, previous training, and experience: all may account for unequal salaries in an environment free of discrimination. The appellant's exhibits make the baseless assumption that the mean salary of employees, by race and by year hired, should be equal regardless of the level at which the employee originally was hired. Under the appellant's analysis, an attorney hired at level 20 with a salary of $20,000 would be compared with a file clerk of a different race with a salary of $6500 if both were hired in the same year. From this inconclusive evidence we are unable to hold that Prudential's black employees, as a class, were the victims of employment discrimination. 10