Opinion ID: 705166
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Wage Discrimination Claims

Text: 62 Tomka next claims that Seiler violated the Equal Pay Act (EPA), Title VII, and the HRL by paying her a lower salary than it paid seven male employees for substantially equal work. The district court dismissed Tomka's wage discrimination claims. We disagree with the district court on Tomka's Equal Pay Act claim as to four of the named employees and therefore reverse the decision below.
63 In order to state a prima facie case of salary discrimination based on sex under the EPA, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 206(d), a plaintiff must demonstrate that i) the employer pays different wages to employees of the opposite sex; ii) the employees perform equal work on jobs requiring equal skill, effort, and responsibility; and iii) the jobs are performed under similar working conditions. See Corning Glass Works v. Brennan, 417 U.S. 188, 195, 94 S.Ct. 2223, 2228, 41 L.Ed.2d 1 (1974); Aldrich v. Randolph Central School District, 963 F.2d 520, 524 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 113 S.Ct. 440, 121 L.Ed.2d 359 (1992). A plaintiff need not demonstrate that her job is identical to a higher paid position, but only must show that the two positions are substantially equal. See Lambert v. Genesee Hospital, 10 F.3d 46, 56 (2d Cir.1993), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 114 S.Ct. 1612, 128 L.Ed.2d 339 (1994). However, jobs which are merely comparable are insufficient to satisfy a plaintiff's prima facie burden. See id., 10 F.3d at 56 (citing Hodgson v. Corning Glass Works, 474 F.2d 226, 234 (2d Cir.1973), aff'd, 417 U.S. 188, 94 S.Ct. 2223, 41 L.Ed.2d 1 (1974)). Under the EPA, a plaintiff need not prove an employer intended to discriminate against her in order to prevail on her claim. See Brinkley-Obu v. Hughes Training, Inc., 36 F.3d 336, 344 n. 17 (4th Cir.1994); Miranda v. B & B Cash Grocery Store, Inc., 975 F.2d 1518, 1526 (11th Cir.1992). 64 Once the plaintiff makes out a prima facie case, the burden of persuasion shifts to the employer to prove that the disparity is justified by one of four affirmative defenses: i) a merit system; ii) a seniority system; iii) a system which measures earnings by quantity or quality of production; iv) a differential based on any other factor other than sex. 29 U.S.C. Sec. 206(d)(1); see also Corning, 417 U.S. at 196, 94 S.Ct. at 2229. An employer who attempts to justify a pay differential based on a factor other than sex must also prove that the gender-neutral factor was adopted for a legitimate business reason. Aldrich, 963 F.2d at 526-27 and n. 1 (citing Kouba v. Allstate Insurance Co., 691 F.2d 873, 876 (9th Cir.1982)). 65
66 In her responses to Seiler's interrogatories, Tomka named seven male Seiler employees who allegedly received a higher salary than she did while performing work substantially equivalent to her duties as a Starts and Surveys manager. See Pl.Resp. at pp. 13-17. The uncontradicted evidence in the record establishes that the seven employees all received higher salaries than Tomka. See Affidavit of Frances Gallitano, Seiler Vice-President of Human Resources, November 9, 1993, at Exh. 1-11. However, the evidence also indicates that Seiler never employed one of the listed employees. See Snook Aff. at p 7; Taylor Aff. at p 5. Two other listed employees were district managers responsible for multiple accounts. While the standard under the Equal Pay Act is job content and not job title or description, see Marshall v. Building Maintenance Corp., 587 F.2d 567, 571 (2d Cir.1978), district managers are clearly higher in the Seiler hierarchy and have greater responsibility and supervisory roles than either account managers or unassigned Starts and Surveys managers. Moreover, Tomka has set forth no specific facts to indicate that she performed substantially equal work to either of the two named district managers. 67 The remaining four Seiler employees listed by Tomka include: Starts and Surveys manager Robert Abrams and account managers Steve Barr, Jeff Dwyer and Ron Jones. Because Abrams and Tomka held identical jobs and Seiler does not allege that their job duties differed, Tomka has established a prima facie case that they performed substantially equal work. As to Barr, Dwyer and Jones, Seiler admits that the duties of Starts and Surveys and account managers partially overlap: Starts and Surveys managers assist account managers in opening new accounts by surveying the client's building, training the client's employees, and writing work schedules. See Snook Aff. at p 4; Taylor Aff. at p 3. Moreover, both types of managers need to know how the housekeeping contracts at a worksite are to be implemented and how to train and supervise the client's janitorial staff. This evidence implies that both manager positions require substantially equal skill and effort and is buttressed by the fact that Tomka herself was originally hired as an account manager before Seiler transferred her to the Starts and Surveys team. 68 Seiler claims that the primary difference between the two types of managers is that Starts and Surveys managers have limited supervisory responsibility over a client's employees and that only account managers are assigned to interact with client management on a daily basis. See Snook Aff. at p 4. Presumably, Seiler contends that account managers have more supervisory responsibility over a client's employees because they supervise the employees on an ongoing basis, whereas Starts and Surveys managers only supervise those same employees during start-up training. However, both the nature and scope of supervision during the start-up period are apparently the same for both types of managers: they deal with the same employees, from the same position of authority, concerning the same work. While a Starts and Surveys manager's supervisory role may last for a shorter period of time, it is for the trier of fact to decide if this is a significant enough difference in responsibility to make the jobs unequal. 69 Similarly, a fact issue exists over the importance of an account manager's daily interactions with client management. While Seiler claims that this interaction differentiates the account and Starts and Surveys manager positions, Seiler's internal job classifications do not differentiate between the positions, assigning the same pay range to both. See Affidavit of Bonita Cox, Seiler Director of Human Resources, November 9, 1993 at Exh. B. This evidence is recognized as relevant by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission EPA regulations: 70 In determining whether job differences are so substantial as to make jobs unequal, it is pertinent to inquire whether and to what extent significance has been given to such differences in setting the wage levels for such jobs. Such an inquiry may ... disclose that apparent differences between jobs have not been recognized as relevant for wage purposes. 71 29 C.F.R. Sec. 1620.14 (1994); see also Laffey v. Northwest Airlines, Inc., 567 F.2d 429, 449 (D.C.Cir.1976) (administrative interpretations of the EPA are entitled to great deference in applying the Act to given factual situations), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 1086, 98 S.Ct. 1281, 55 L.Ed.2d 792 (1978). Thus, Seiler's decision to classify the jobs in the same compensation range is evidence that the purported differences between the positions may not be substantial. Moreover, Snook described Tomka's transfer to the Starts and Surveys team from an account manager position as at best a lateral move. Snook Aff. at p 4. While Snook also suggests that Tomka was demoted to the Starts and Surveys team, his assertion is undercut by the fact that Tomka's salary remained the same after her transfer and by Seiler's published statement which characterized the move as a promotion. See Seiler Trumpet, Spring, 1988, attached as Exh. 9 to Tomka's Statement of Facts. Based on this evidence, a fact finder could reasonably infer that the two positions entailed substantially equal responsibility. 72 In addition, evidence exists that Starts and Surveys and account managers performed their jobs under similar working conditions. Both types of managers work on-site, often from the same office. Indeed, one of the duties of a Starts and Surveys manager is to organize the office of the account manager. See Snook Aff. at p 4. While Starts and Surveys managers constantly travel to new worksites and spend less time at a facility than account managers, it is for the trier of fact to determine if this frequent travel results in dissimilar working conditions. For the above reasons, Tomka has established a prima facie case, sufficient to defeat Seiler's summary judgment motion, that she was paid less than Barr, Dwyer and Jones even though they performed substantially equal work under similar working conditions. See Aldrich, 963 F.2d at 527. 73
74 In response to Tomka's assertions, Seiler justifies Abrams' and the three account managers' higher salaries by alleging that the discrepancies resulted from factors other than sex. 10 Seiler contended, and the district court agreed, that Abrams' higher salary resulted from the fact that he had over ten years of experience with a Seiler competitor. While Abrams' experience may very well explain the discrepancy, Seiler has the burden of persuasion to show both that it based Abrams' higher salary on this factor and that experience is a job-related qualification for the position in question. See id. at 527. Seiler's mere assertion that Abrams' salary was based on his experience is insufficient to meet this burden, and the district court therefore erred in holding that Seiler had established its factor other than sex affirmative defense. 75 As to the account managers, Seiler has also not proved that it based their higher wages on factors other than sex. Seiler claims to consider a variety of factors in determining the salaries for its managers, including experience, education, work and salary history, salary requested, job performance and position applied for. See Snook Aff. at p 6. However, Seiler has neither particularized how each of these factors explains the salary discrepancy between Tomka and the three account managers nor demonstrated how any of these factors are job-related to the positions in question. At the most, Seiler's evidence merely raises a fact issue as to whether all or any of these factors can explain and justify the wage differentials between Tomka and the account managers. 11 76 In sum, it is for the fact finder to determine if Tomka was paid less for equal work, and, if so, whether Seiler has established that the salary differentials were legitimately based on factors other than sex. Accordingly, the district court improperly dismissed Tomka's EPA claim as to Abrams, Barr, Dwyer and Jones.
77 A claim of unequal pay for equal work under Title VII and the HRL is generally analyzed under the same standards used in an EPA claim. See Laffey, 567 F.2d at 446. However, unlike an EPA plaintiff, a Title VII plaintiff must also produce evidence of discriminatory animus in order to make out a prima facie case of intentional sex-based salary discrimination. See Aldrich, 963 F.2d at 528. Tomka has failed to produce any evidence that Seiler paid her less than Abrams or the three account managers because of her gender. Rather, she relies on the fact that those employees were paid more than she was and that they are men. These facts do not support an inference that Seiler acted with a discriminatory intent, and Tomka's claims under Title VII and the HRL were therefore properly dismissed by the district court. Id.; Brinkley-Obu, 36 F.3d at 344 n. 17; Miranda, 975 F.2d at 1526.