Three former employees say Virginia Tech values men more than their female counterparts.
Related: Court documents
Women who worked in university development in the mid-2000s are suing Tech for gender discrimination. The trial begins Monday.
Update: Jury rules in favor of two of the three plaintiffs in equal pay lawsuit.
Shana Maron, formerly known as Shana Kennedy before a divorce, filed a lawsuit against Tech on Oct. 7, 2008, alleging the university paid her and other female employees less than their male counterparts.
Two more former Tech employees, Erin Hofberg and Getra Hanes, joined Maron’s suit in the following months.
Larry Hincker, university spokesman, said Tech believes the allegations are without merit, and the facts, when presented in court, will underscore its position.
According to the case files, the plaintiffs claim Tech violated the Equal Pay Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination based on gender, in this case.
Nicholas Woodfield, the lead attorney for Maron and the other plaintiffs, said the most dynamic point in the case is that the Equal Pay Act says plaintiffs don’t have to prove Tech acted with intent. Rather, Tech must justify the reasons for its pay disparities.
“There is no question that it was paying similarly situated comparators more,” Woodfield said. “The question is why.”
The plaintiffs are seeking unspecified damages. Woodfield said his clients are asking Tech to pay them the difference between what they were earning while employed and what the highest male comparators were earning.
Woodfield said the differences range from a couple hundred to a couple thousand dollars per paycheck.
He said his clients were advised to avoid speaking to the press because their words could be used against them.
According to the files, Maron was hired as an assistant director of university development in March 2006. She later worked in the same position for development in engineering. Her annual salary was $49,000.
The files state that Maron met with Robert Bailey, the senior director of regional gifts for university development, in April 2007 regarding a regional director position.
Maron told Bailey she expected an annual salary of $68,500 in the new position because Field Glover, the male who last occupied the position, started at that amount, according to the files. Bailey offered Maron $48,000 as compensation for the position.
She also claims Bailey made gender-discriminatory statements about women. According to the files, Maron said he told her she was not worth the same as Glover because she was a woman and not the head of a household. Bailey allegedly told her that hiring a woman poses a liability and waste of space because pregnancy could cause missed work, according to the files.
According to the files, Maron also claimed Bailey told her he might “slap her with a ‘wet noodle’” if she repeated that he made those statements.
Bailey was not available for comment.
Tech argues in the files that it uses gender-neutral factors to determine salaries. Hincker wrote in an e-mail statement that the university has a strong non-discrimination policy, and it takes any discrimination allegation seriously.
According to the files, Hofberg was a regional director of major gifts for university development from May 2006 until August 2006, and her annual salary was $53,500. Hanes was a regional director of major gifts from October 2006 until April 2008. Her annual salary matched Hofberg’s.
The plaintiff’s male comparators, Justin Mosby, Benjamin Grove, James Grove and Christopher Lawson, were paid $55,000, $61,000, $63,000 and $67,000 annual salaries upon hire, respectively, the files said.
The four men continue to work at Tech in university development.
Tech claims any difference between the plaintiffs’ salaries and their comparators can be explained by objective metrics, according to the files. This includes fundraising experience, sales and marketing experience, graduate degrees and work experience in higher education.
Woodfield commented on Tech’s method for determining salaries.
“The most interesting thing is Virginia Tech’s apparently inconsistent means of calculating how much new hires might be paid given the possibility that the lack of cohesive policy can lead to such apparent disparities in pay,” he said.
A jury will hear the case in the U.S. District Court in Roanoke, Va., on Monday.
A version of this article appeared in the Apr 6 issue of the Collegiate Times.
Leave a comment 45 Comments Write a letter to the editor
All letters to the editor must include a name, e-mail, daytime phone number and affiliation to Virginia Tech. Affiliation includes: year and major for students; position and department for faculty and staff; current city for alumni and parents.
There is no conspiracy to pay women less, sorry.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/dilorenzo/dilorenzo160.html
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Dude, did you flunk Freshman English? Or are you just old? Your English professor taught you to distinguish legitimate scholarship from opinion websites. Did you show up to class that day?
Mr. DiLorenzo's list of reasons for wage disparity has nothing to do with Ms. Maron receiving 43% less pay than Mr. Bailey.
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@alum is not a word: Apparently you flunked freshman English. Maron's pay was never compared to Bailey's. What you meant to say was Glover. But, the case doesn't necessarily identify Glover as a comparitor. So, maybe you should work on your reading comprehension before accusing others, dude.
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Got the name wrong--ok. I'm not posting bogus websites, and expecting equal pay isn't exactly bandwagon. You've got a few years; you'll figure it out.
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I never said I agreed with the posting of the website or that it was credible. I was just making the point that your comment was comical at best. I was also making the point that Glover was not a comparitor for the sake of the case. Glover only came up when going over the interview with Mr. Bailey. I don't know if you thought I was "Alum" but I am not. I might also add that "alum" is, in fact, a word. It has a specific meaning that is different than as used above and a informal definition as a synonym for alumna or alumnus. "You've got a few years; you'll figure it out." You should probably hop down from your high horse and realize that you can't spout ignorance in response to others' ignorance without hearing about it. To parallel your quote: You've got a few years; you probably won't figure it out.
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The same argument is made in today's WSJ, by a woman.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704415104576250672504707048.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
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Indeed there is... take a closer look at the related court documents referenced in this article- unfortunately not surprising for a school that used to call the female dorm a "skirt barn." :-(
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Slusher was called the "Skirt Barn" because all the girls in it were fatties.
The emphasis was on barn, not skirt. As in - "look at that heffer coming out of the skirt barn!"
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Women should get paid less.
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Does that mean I can sue because a lot of the women in my area get paid more than I do?
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No, stupid boy. It means you should shut the hell up.
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Are they working the same job? Or are you just flailing to dismiss this problem because it pertains to gender inequality (and you, in your bubble, don't like to hear about that)?
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This comment has been buried by moderation (show comment)
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Quick to jump on the bandwagon, eh?
I would say that character counts as an objective metric, and one of the plaintiffs suffers from serious flaws in that area.
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They may not have explicitly compared the pay that each person received, but by listing them in the same paragraph, that is just the same.
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wait ....does years of prior experience count...how about prior salary...you don't just give someone who starts a job the same as someone else "just cause" if its not justified..
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obviously you're not familiar with government jobs
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As odd as this may seem, even the government values prior experience. You can't just jump into the top of the GS without the right background.
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Actually, I'm quite familiar with the system. Sounds like you may be too. So, you should know that often, if you're stepping into the govt realm from the private sector, it's tough to justify your experience as a particular level GS.
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This case may have merit, and it may not. I think we can all leave our opinions up here without starting little fights with people we don't even know.
Who are we to say whether or not she was payed less because she was a woman? Who are we to say that she wasn't? If you really care, keep following the case instead of b*tching at each other.
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But it's so much more fun to post snarky "I know more than you" and "My opinion is better than yours" comments!
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Yeah, it's so much more fun to go trollalaing on articles like this.
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Seriously, there's not enough information in this article to even begin to form opinions. We have no idea about the backgrounds of the people mentioned in the article, just a bunch of "he said, she said" and salaries listed. Dig into this further before arguing over it. Geez.
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Did it say anywhere about experience? I didn't see it...
Maron/Glover:
Just because she holds the same title doesn't automatically qualify her for the same pay. What if his 68k was because he had worked many years prior or because that job has since lost value and they were waiting on him to leave to bring it down.
I make 20k less then my counterpart because he has been here for many many years. If he left and I jumped into his position I would not automatically receive his pay rate just because I am in the same position.
There are so many reasons why she may not get paid the same but it is obviously due to the fact that she is a woman!
Imagine if a guy brought this up saying he was treated sexistly because the woman before him got paid more? Everyone would laugh.
Equality through inequality is never a good thing.
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No, everyone would not laugh if a man brought forward a case that he was paid less than others in the position. It's 2011 not 1950. Although this IS southwestern Virginia, which is probably the problem... Let's see how the situation plays out before jumping on one side or the other. Maybe the women are bringing the case forward because they DID have the same or better experience. We could just as easily make that argument.
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I agree with you- geography probably does have a lot to do with it, but Federal Law is the law no matter where you are in the country, and yes, it is 2011- not 1950- time to get with it VT and pay professional women what they are worth.
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I believe in a thing called love. Just listen to the rhythm of a feminists heart. Oh wait, they dont have one... One of the big things, is women want equal pay for equal work. I have absolutely no problem with that as long as they hold up the EQUAL WORK part. Claiming you got paid less because you have a vagina is erroneous and just plain stupid. The glass ceiling is BS.
Adios,
Female with sensible views.
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@feminists are dum lol- actually, there IS indeed a problem when a manager (Bailey) tells a female candidate that the ONLY reason that she will not receive the same pay as her equally qualified male colleague is indeed because she has a vagina- equally problematic is when the candidate is told that very vagina could potentially get her pregnant and that would cause difficulty for her potential manager because she might be temporarily unavailable to work at some point during her career... read the details of the court documents- it is very disturbing that this type of discrimination is still alive and well at a State University...
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All of those things you just stated may be fact or fiction. You're speculating on the result of the suit prior to anyone taking the stand and subjecting themself to a potential perjury charge. You've convicted Tech before anything is said in court.
Congratulations - you're contributing to one of the many problems with America.
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@.....aaaand- my statement was based on the related court documents, so, I'm assuming what was documented in prior precedings is indeed fact. If it is indeed fact that Ms. Maron was told such discriminating comments by Bailey, as I am assuming that the official court documents are not false, I am disgusted with Tech for putting up with such a poor manager. Read the details- this suit was filed in 2008- it has been going on for some time now. I'll be following to see what happens.
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The glass ceiling is unfortunately still a reality in this country. Believe it or not, the fact remains that women are paid less than men for doing the same jobs. Argue the disparity however you want. As a female working in a mans world (civil engineering), there is not a single woman in an upper level management position at my company. I'm not feeling bad for myself, and I'm not crying the blues that I don't get treated fairly. I'm just staying that these problems do still exist and deserve our attention.
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I'm a guy and have worked in the Civil Engineering industry for close to 10 years. If I look up at my Tech composite, I notice that about 85% of my graduating class were male. That's pretty indicitave (as you mentioned) of the field, in general.
Since graduation, I have worked under two females, one of whom was VP of my company. They got their jobs because they earned them. Now, I'll acknowledge that there MAY be firms that are gender-biased (in and out of CE), but I have yet to see it. This is not a rampant problem in our industry in my experience.
Do you think that the absence of a female in upper management at your company has to do with the simple fact that there are not a lot of women in our industry and a qualified one has not stepped up yet? Would you promote a woman to that position just because she is a woman?
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So there are no female managers, but that is not the point.
The question is, do you get paid the same salary as your male counterpart who is in the same position with the same amount of years on the job?
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My previous boss (a woman) was making significantly more than her male counterparts at the company (we had an open book policy on salaries, and we're talking 10-15% more). She was a fantastic engineer.
Any company that is still treating women unfairly salary-wise is not going to last. I wouldn't put up with it, personally, and I would be out the door to a company that appreciated me. There are plenty to pick from.
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recent news articles have shown that single, career oriented women earn more than their male counterparts. So, follow that model and you will be paid more. As for labor intensive companies, they get their female "quota" by hiring them in as managers because many women will not work in labor intensive positions...just ask Pepsi. Their info session for hiring consisted of them just saying they needed more women in higher positions because they couldn't hire any for the floor jobs. Discrimination goes both ways, even with "quotas".
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recent news articles have shown that single, career oriented women earn more than their male counterparts. So, follow that model and you will be paid more. As for labor intensive companies, they get their female "quota" by hiring them in as managers because many women will not work in labor intensive positions...just ask Pepsi. Their info session for hiring consisted of them just saying they needed more women in higher positions because they couldn't hire any for the floor jobs. Discrimination goes both ways, even with "quotas".
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I disagree and so does the author of this article that came out today:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704415104576250672504707048.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
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"Claiming you got paid less because you have a vagina is erroneous and just plain stupid." Your statement is so full of hate. I seriously wonder what happened to you that resulted in this viewpoint. I would feel sorry for you but according to you, I don't have a heart.
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I agree with you- "Feminists are dumb- lol's" comments were so full of hate, and hate is the seed of discrimination. The glass ceiling is still very real, and we DO need to talk about these things for the benefit of men, women, and their families everywhere. Discrimination hurts everybody. It should not be tolerateed on any level- and certainly not in our town!
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I don't see how you think that is full of hate. Maybe uncouth, but not full of hate. I think you need to get off that high horse yourself and come down here to the real world. While everything is equal this, equal that - it just doesn't work like that. Everyone from White men to Yellow Kangaroos are discriminated against in some way - it is impossible to be fully equal in everything we do.
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"Hate" is, without a doubt, one of the most obnoxiously overused words in the English language today. The proof is here.
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Oh no... I've nothing real to say either, but I must silence the opposition... um... MISOGYNIST! er... RACIST! There. One of those will do it. You're welcome my fellow feminists.
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Its Proven fact that women have half of the brain size as a man
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