Opinion ID: 479858
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Topping up under the unisex method

Text: 27 The district court properly ordered the retroactive and prospective topping up of benefits under the unisex method of calculation. Under this method male benefits are raised to that level which males would have received had sex-neutral mortality tables been applied to their original benefits. Plaintiff class argues that if this method of topping up is adopted, members of subclass A will continue to receive smaller pension benefits than equally situated females who retired prior to August 1, 1983. This is true because these female retirees have a vested right to the same level of benefits they received under the sex-distinct mortality tables, which are higher than the benefits they would have received under the unisex method. Plaintiff class argues, therefore, that only by topping up benefits for male retirees and their female beneficiaries to the level of benefits for females who retired prior to August 1, 1983 can the court make the parties equal. 28 Plaintiff class misconstrues the purpose of Title VII. Title VII does not require equalization; it only requires that plaintiffs be made whole. The injured party is to be placed, as near as may be, in the situation he would have occupied if the wrong had not been committed. Albemarle, 422 U.S. at 418-19, 95 S.Ct. at 2372 (quoting Wicker v. Hoppsek, 73 U.S. (6 Wall.) 94, 99, 18 L.Ed. 752 (1867)). The district court, therefore, was correct in ordering relief under the unisex method of calculation.