Oregon professor’s pay discrimination claims revived on appeal

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals recently revived a psychology professor's claims that the University of Oregon paid her less than her male colleagues in violation of federal and state equal pay laws.

Facts

In 2017, Jennifer Freyd filed her lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon claiming she had been paid between $14,000 and $42,000 per year less than four male psychology professors with similar or less experience at the university. She argued the pay disparities violated the Equal Pay Act (EPA), which requires equal pay for equal work, and Oregon’s pay bias law, which mandates equal pay for “comparable work.”

Freyd further alleged the university’s practice of providing retention raises to certain employees to keep them from taking jobs at other universities had a disparate impact on female faculty members in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Specifically, she argued female faculty are typically less willing to relocate and, as a result, are less likely to seek the retention raises.

In support of the argument, Freyd provided statistical evidence showing the psychology department had engaged in 20 retention negotiations over the course of 10 years. Only four of the negotiations, however, included female faculty members, and only one resulted in a raise for a woman.

District court judge sides with university