Board of Sup'rs of Buchanan County v. Iowa Civil Rights Com'n

• Decision Date: 23 September 1998
• Docket Number: No. 96-1803,96-1803
• Citation: 584 N.W.2d 252
• Parties: BOARD OF SUPERVISORS OF BUCHANAN COUNTY, Iowa, Appellant, v. IOWA CIVIL RIGHTS COMMISSION and Alice J. Peyton, Appellees.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

Page 252

584 N.W.2d 252

BOARD OF SUPERVISORS OF BUCHANAN COUNTY, Iowa, Appellant, v. IOWA CIVIL RIGHTS COMMISSION and Alice J. Peyton, Appellees.

No. 96-1803.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

Sept. 23, 1998.

Steven A. Stefani and Thomas F. Ochs of Gray, Stefani & Mitvalsky, P.L.C., Cedar Rapids, for appellant.

Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, and Teresa Baustian, Assistant Attorney General, for appellees.

Considered by HARRIS, P.J., and CARTER, NEUMAN, SNELL, and ANDREASEN, JJ.

CARTER, Justice.

The Board of Supervisors of Buchanan County, as a former employer of Alice J. Peyton, appeal from a district court order upholding the finding of the Iowa Civil Rights Commission that the county had discriminated against Peyton based on gender. Because we conclude that the civil rights commission erred in its application of important legal principles, we reverse the district court's decision. We remand the case to that court with directions to vacate the order of the commission and remand the case to the commission for further action consistent with our opinion.

Peyton began working as a part-time jailer with the Buchanan County Sheriff's Department in September 1982. In April of 1984 she was named head jail administrator at a pay rate of $5.00 per hour. Her predecessor in that position, David Kuhn, who, like Peyton, was a civilian, had been compensated first at seventy-five percent and later at eighty percent of the sheriff's salary, a substantially higher pay rate than that afforded Peyton. After Peyton resigned to take a job elsewhere, the board of supervisors elected to staff the jail administration position with a deputy sheriff. Lieutenant Mark Fettkether of the Buchanan County Sheriff's Office was appointed to that position and was paid according to the established salary schedule for deputy sheriffs bearing the rank of lieutenant. Fettkether's pay exceeded that of both Kuhn and Peyton.

Peyton filed a complaint with the Iowa Civil Rights Commission in January 1990, alleging discrimination based on gender. The commission found in her favor and awarded her $23,134 in back pay and $2000 in damages for emotional distress. Interest was added to these awards. The action of the civil rights commission was affirmed by the district court in a review of agency action pursuant to Iowa Code section 17A.19(8) (1995). Other facts and circumstances pertinent to our decision will be considered in our discussion of the legal issues that have been presented.

I. Standard for Review of Agency Action.

In actions for review of agency decisions under Iowa Code section 17A.19(8) (1997), an appellate court assesses whether that court's legal conclusions accord with those of the district court. Office of Consumer Advocate v. Iowa State Commerce Comm'n, 465 N.W.2d 280, 281 (Iowa 1991); Iverson Constr., Inc. v. Department of Employment Servs., 449 N.W.2d 356, 358-59 (Iowa 1989); Northwestern Bell Tel. Co. v. Iowa State Commerce Comm'n, 359 N.W.2d 491, 495 (Iowa 1984). This is particularly true when, as in the present appeal, the appellant asserts as a basis for relief that the district court applied an improper legal standard in concluding that the agency's decision was supported by substantial evidence. Iowa Code § 17A.19(8)(b), (e).

II. Whether the Decision of the Iowa Civil Rights Commission was Induced by a Misapplication of the Law Concerning Pay Differentials Attributed to Differing Credentials, Background, And Experience.

A. Consideration of Fettkether's qualifications. In challenging the district court's order upholding the decision of the civil rights commission, Buchanan County asserts that the commission "erroneously failed to account for the substantial evidence demonstrating differences in credentials, background [and] experience ... of the three individuals being compared." The most forceful point the county makes in this regard is its contention that both the district court and the commission erred in their conclusion that Mark Fettkether's status as a deputy sheriff had nothing to do with the duties and responsibilities of jail administration and thus afforded no basis for a pay differential. In this regard, the commission concluded in its conclusion of law No. 32 that

[f]undamental in the application of the law is the premise that it establishes an objective standard requiring that a judgment with respect to alleged discrimination between sexes is based upon the requirements of the particular jobs being compared, rather than a comparison of the skill of individual employees, the effort of individual employees, or their previous training and experience.

The court's conclusion of law No. 42(a), (b), and (c) contained similar legal pronouncements.

The commission's focus on the bare requirements of the job with no accompanying comparison of the respective qualifications and experience of Fettkether and Peyton was prompted by reliance on the elements of a prima facie case in a claim under the Equal Pay Act, 29 U.S.C. § 206(d)(1). The commission assumed its authority to draw on that federal legislation as a result of our recognition in other cases that we will look to federal case law interpreting Title VII (42 U.S.C. § 2000e(e)(2)) for guidance in deciding cases under Iowa Code chapter 216 (formerly chapter 601A). King v. Iowa Civil Rights Comm'n, 334 N.W.2d 598, 601 (Iowa 1983); Iowa State Fairgrounds Sec. v. Iowa Civil Rights Comm'n, 322 N.W.2d 293, 296 (Iowa 1982).

In the King and the Iowa State Fairgrounds cases and earlier cases cited in Iowa State Fairgrounds, we found sufficient similarity between the Title VII prohibitions against employment discrimination and our own chapter 216 (formerly chapter 601A) to adopt the same analytical framework for burden of proof and order of presentation that federal courts have applied in Title VII cases. In Boelman v. Manson State Bank, 522 N.W.2d 73, 79 (Iowa 1994), we found sufficient similarity between our chapter 216 prohibitions against disability discrimination and those contained in 29 U.S.C. § 794 (§ 54 of the Rehabilitation Act) that federal cases interpreting that statute provide some guidance for applying our disability discrimination law. A similar comparison was made between chapter 216 and the Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 12102(2) and 12112(a) in Bearshield v. John Morrell & Co., 570 N.W.2d 915, 918 (Iowa 1997).

In none of the above cases have federal decisions been determined to be dispositive, a contention we expressly rejected in Franklin Manufacturing Co. v. Iowa Civil Rights Commission, 270 N.W.2d 829, 831 (Iowa 1978). Federal cases provide guidance only to the extent that the statutory scheme they are interpreting and applying resembles our own civil rights legislation. The similarity in purpose and substantive content that exists between chapter 216 and the federal law contained in Title VII statutes and the Rehabilitation Act does not exist with respect to the Equal Pay Act for which Iowa has no statutory counterpart.

The Equal Pay Act provides that an employer may not discriminate

by paying wages to employees in such establishment at a rate less than the rate at which [the employer] pays wages to employees of the opposite sex.

29 U.S.C. § 206(d)(1). Unless the employer establishes one of the affirmative defenses recognized in the statute, a showing of wage disparity between employees of different gender performing the same tasks establishes liability as a matter of law. Unlike Title VII and the employment discrimination provisions of chapter 216, which require a showing of intent to discriminate based on gender, the Equal Pay Act requires no showing of discriminatory intent. Fallon v. State of Illinois, 882 F.2d 1206, 1213 (7th Cir.1989); Strecker v. Grand Forks County Soc. Serv. Bd., 640 F.2d 96, 99 (8th Cir.1980).

In the Strecker case, the Eighth Circuit described the situation as follows:

There appears to be some difference in both substantive and procedural approach. Substantively, title VII requires a showing of discriminatory intent. The Equal Pay Act creates a type of strict liability; no intent to discriminate need be shown. Procedurally, once a plaintiff has shown a prima facie case of sex discrimination under title VII the burden of going forward with the evidence to articulate a nondiscriminatory reason shifts to the employer. Plaintiff still retains the ultimate burden of proof to show discriminatory intent and that the justification by the defendant was pretextual.

Under the Equal Pay Act, once a prima facie case has been established, 29 U.S.C. § 206(d) provides defendants [certain] affirmative defenses. Defendants have the burden of proving the wage disparity is the result of [one of these affirmative defenses].

640 F.2d at 99 n.1 (citations omitted).

Although evidence based only on the similarity of tasks performed without comparing employee qualifications may establish a prima facie case under either the Equal Pay Act or Title VII and chapter 216, this is so for different reasons. It is so under the Equal Pay Act because disparity in pay for the performance of equal tasks is direct evidence of what that statute prohibits. It is so under Title VII and chapter 216 because disparity in pay for performance of similar tasks is circumstantial evidence of the discriminatory intent on which liability depends. But the fact that disparity in pay for the same task may establish a prima facie case does not mean that the employer may not justify the pay disparity based on differing qualifications and experience of the employees being compared. Under the Equal Pay Act, the employer may raise as an affirmative defense that notwithstanding the similarity in the tasks performed the employees had different qualifications and experience justifying the pay differential. ¹ Under Title VII and chapter 216, the employer may satisfy its burden of production as to a nondiscriminatory motive by evidence of differing qualifications...