Opinion ID: 25032
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Grant-Obtaining Abilities

Text: 22 The University offered two affirmative defenses at trial to explain the wage differential alleged in Siler-Khodr's EPA and Title VII claims: 1) Sydney was more productive in his ability to secure grants than Siler-Khodr and 2) Pauerstein offered Sydney a higher salary than that of Siler-Khodr as an incentive to retain his wife, Rochelle, a professor in the department since 1976, based on Sydney's prior salary and market forces. With respect to the first affirmative defense, Pauerstein testified at trial that the single most important criterion he uses to allocate money for raises is success in obtaining grant funding. 2 23 Siler-Khodr testified at trial that she had brought in $2.8 to $2.9 million in grants over the course of her tenure at the University as a principal investigator. In contrast, Sydney testified that he had obtained in excess of $1.9 million in grant money to the University. Pauerstein, however, testified that the department had attributed $2.9 million in grant funding, all from NIH, to Sydney as a Principal Investigator (PI) during the years 1989-1999. During the period 1975-1999, however, Pauerstein testified that Siler-Khodr obtained only $600,000 in grant funding as a principal investigator, all from NIH. 24 Sydney also testified that although he had not obtained any new grant funding since 1995, he had received raises since that time. Pauerstein testified that he did not recommend a raise for Sydney in 1999 because he had been unable to receive a grant. Similarly, Pauerstein testified that he did not recommend Siler-Khodr for a raise in 1999 because her track record in bringing in grant support was not excellent, although she had obtained grant support for that year. In 1991, however, Pauerstein recommended a raise for Siler-Khodr that was over five percent greater than that which he recommended for Sydney. 3 25 Siler-Khodr argues that the University's grant-obtaining defense is mere pretext for the discrepancy between her and Sydney's compensation. She notes, in contrast to Pauerstein's testimony regarding the importance of obtaining grants in evaluating salary raises, that Dean Young wrote in a 1996 letter that [t]here are no institutionally specified factors to consider as a basis for determining total annual compensation. Siler-Khodr also contends that the University presented neither a campus-wide nor departmental policy showing that this factor had ever been used as a wage-setting criterion. Although she was informed in her 1996 and 1997 faculty evaluations that she needed to improve her ability to obtain further grant funding for research studies, there is no evidence in the record that Siler-Khodr had been criticized in her evaluations for not obtaining sufficient funding prior to 1996 and 1997. The record also reflects that she had not been informed that she was paid less because of her purportedly lesser ability to obtain grants. 26 A review of the record therefore indicates that Siler-Khodr presented sufficient evidence at trial to support the jury's finding that the University's grant-obtaining affirmative defense was pretext for its paying Siler-Khodr a lower wage than Sydney. We, therefore, hold that the district court did not err.