Opinion ID: 3011207
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Evans's Base Salary

Text: Durham argues that the District Court used the wrong base salary for Evans because it used Evans's 1992 salary even though she left in 1993. This meant the difference between $119,000 and $66,000, or $53,000 per year. Durham cites to other cases that used a plaintiff's salary on the last day of employment to calculate back pay, even though the harassment had preceded that last day. Durham's precedents are easily distinguishable, because they concern cases of harassment that did not have a tangible impact on plaintiffs' compensation. See, e.g., Virgo v. Riviera Beach Assoc., Ltd., 30 F.3d 1350 (11th Cir. 1994). If Durham's argument were to be accepted, then it would be 26 to a discriminator's advantage to increase its mistreatment from a hostile environment to a decrease in pay, so that any ultimate penalty would be minimized. Evans's attempts to deal with the discrimination without quitting, despite the negative effects on her salary, should not be held against her. The District Court did not abuse its discretion when it used Evans's salary from 1992, the last full year before the discrimination began, as the benchmark. Because Evans's salary when she left was less than a nondiscriminatory salary would have been, it should not be used as the benchmark. See EEOC v. Delight Wholesale Co., 973 F.2d 664, 668, 670 (8th Cir. 1994); cf. Gunby v. Pennsylvania Elec. Co., 840 F.2d 1108, 1119 (3d Cir. 1988) (back pay should be the difference between actual wages and the wages the plaintiff would have earned absent discrimination). Evans consistently earned $90,000 per year in the last few years before she came to Durham, and she was a leading producer at Durham, earning $128,000 and then $119,000. It was reasonable to conclude that, but for the discrimination, Evans would have continued her outstanding performance. Cf. Goss, 747 F.2d at 889 (upholding the District Court's calculation of commissions lost through discrimination because the estimates were reasonably based on the plaintiff's past performance);11 Gallo, 779 F. Supp. at 808 (calculating back pay on a commission basis and taking into account plaintiff's demonstrated ability to get commissions).