Brock v. Georgia Southwestern College, 84-8219

• Decision Date: 15 July 1985
• Docket Number: No. 84-8219,84-8219
• Parties: 43 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 1525, 27 Wage & Hour Cas. (BN 946, 37 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 35,470, 103 Lab.Cas. P 34,687, 25 Ed. Law Rep. 1103 William E. BROCK, Secretary of Labor, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, United States Department of Labor, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. GEORGIA SOUTHWESTERN COLLEGE, et al., Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

Page 1026

765 F.2d 1026

43 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 1525,

27 Wage & Hour Cas. (BN 946,

37 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 35,470,

103 Lab.Cas. P 34,687, 25 Ed. Law Rep. 1103

William E. BROCK, Secretary of Labor, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, United States Department of Labor, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. GEORGIA SOUTHWESTERN COLLEGE, et al., Defendants-Appellants.

No. 84-8219.

United States Court of Appeals Eleventh Circuit.

July 15, 1985.

Carl C. Jones, Sr., George P. Shingler, Asst. Attys. Gen., Atlanta, Ga., for defendants-appellants.

Dianna B. Johnston, Office of Gen. Counsel, Appellate Services Div., E.E.O.C., Washington, D.C., for plaintiffs-appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia.

Before KRAVITCH and CLARK, Circuit Judges, and PECK ^*, Senior Circuit Judge.

KRAVITCH, Circuit Judge:

Appellants Georgia Southwestern College (hereafter "the College"), the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia (hereafter "the Regents") and the State of Georgia appeal the finding that they willfully violated the Equal Pay Act (hereafter "the Act"), 29 U.S.C. Sec. 206(d)(1) and Sec. 215(a)(3), by paying female faculty members less than male faculty members for "equal work on jobs the performance of which requires equal skill, effort and responsibility ..." and by retaliating against the husband of one of those female instructors.

I. BACKGROUND

The court below made the following findings: ¹

Georgia Southwestern College is a four year state college, one of thirty-two state institutions of higher learning in Georgia. Such institutions are governed by the Board of Regents. ² The Regents allocate money to the various state institutions based upon the average faculty salary multiplied by the number of faculty slots. The institution then determines the salaries of individual employees. Hiring of new faculty members begins with the chairperson of the division. Recruitment is not done in any standard way and there is no notice or posting requirement. The president of each institution makes the final decision on hiring, subject to the routine approval of the Chancellor of the University System of Georgia. There are no set salary scales and the amount a new faculty member receives is a matter of agreement between the institution represented by the division chairperson and the employee. Annual salary increases are computed as a percentage of current salary.

As of August 29, 1978, appellant College was divided into the following academic divisions: business administration, education, English and humanities, nursing, physical education, biological sciences, mathematics, physical sciences, social sciences, psychology, social studies, continuing education, and library. Each division had a chairperson. ³ At that time, the College had approximately 125 teachers. The teachers were ranked as follows: (1) instructors; (2) assistant professors; (3) associate professors; and (4) professors. The College's own Divisional Personnel Services Analysis and information prepared by the College for the American Association of University Professors showed that the higher ranking positions were paid more. These reports also showed that men were concentrated in the higher positions, and that, even in the lower ranking positions, men generally received higher salaries than women.

In 1972, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) found equal pay violations among the custodial workers at the College. The College and the Regents agreed to pay back wages. In 1974-1975, DOL began an investigation of possible Equal Pay Act violations among the faculty. ⁴ This investigation culminated in the present lawsuit, filed in 1978, in which DOL ⁵ alleged that appellants had failed to comply with section 6(d) of the Act, which provides:

No employer having employees subject to any provisions of this section shall discriminate, within any establishment in which such employees are employed, between employees on the basis of sex by paying wages to employees in such establishment at a rate less than the rate at which he pays wages to employees of the opposite sex in such establishment for equal work on jobs the performance of which requires equal skill, effort, and responsibility, and which are performed under similar working conditions, except where such payment is made pursuant to (i) a seniority system; (ii) a merit system; (iii) a system which measures earnings by quantity or quality of production; or (iv) a differential based on any factor other than sex: Provided, That an employer who is paying a wage rate differential in violation of this subsection shall not, in order to comply with the provisions of this section, reduce the wage rate of any employee.

29 U.S.C. Sec. 206(d)(1). DOL alleged that the Act was violated in six specific instances of female faculty members. ⁶ These six female faculty members are:

1. Dr. Jacquelyn McKinney--Dr. McKinney is an Assistant Professor of Business Education. She teaches such courses as business law, typing, shorthand, business communications, secretarial accounting, and office management. She came to Georgia Southwestern in 1967 with six years experience teaching high school, two years teaching vocational school, and one year part-time at Georgia Southwestern College. She obtained her Doctorate of Education (Ed.D.) in 1975 and is considered to be a good teacher.

2. Ora Jane Sawyer--Ms. Sawyer has been employed at Georgia Southwestern College since 1961. She holds a position of Assistant Professor and since 1976 has been the Director of the Cooperative Program. When she was teaching, she taught typing, shorthand, transcription, business communications, and some graduate courses. Ms. Sawyer has an Ed.S. degree which is the equivalent of a doctorate degree but for a thesis.

3. Winona Sisk--Ms. Sisk is an Assistant Professor of Business Administration and teaches business law, insurance, real estate, marketing management, sales management, and principles of transportation. She came to Georgia Southwestern College in 1963 and received her M.Ed. in 1966. She has one year of study toward her doctorate. Her experience includes six years of public school teaching before coming to Georgia Southwestern.

4. Rebecca Parks--Ms. Parks is an Assistant Professor of Business Administration, holds an Ed.S. degree, and has worked at Georgia Southwestern College since 1968. She had ten years of teaching experience on the college level before coming to Georgia Southwestern and teaches all levels of accounting.

5. Mary Reeves--Ms. Reeves is an instructor of physical education. She came to Georgia Southwestern College in 1974 and received her masters degree in 1976. She teaches skill courses and classroom courses. In addition to her teaching, she also spends 12-14 hours per week organizing and supervising intramural sports.

6. Leewynn Finklea--Ms. Finklea is an Associate Professor of English and is the Director of Alumnae Affairs. She has a Masters of Education and has taught at Georgia Southwestern College since 1952.

489 F.Supp. at 1327. The court found that Dr. McKinney, Ms. Sawyer, Ms. Sisk, and Ms. Parks, could be compared with one or more of the following males in the business department:

1. Dr. Jackson M. McNeil--Dr. McNeil taught principles of accounting, business machines, typing, shorthand, and materials and methods in business from 1968 through 1974. He received his Ed.D. shortly after coming to Georgia Southwestern and was promoted to Associate Professor in only three years. Dr. McKinney still has not been promoted to Associate Professor. Dr. McNeil had two years experience teaching in a junior college and one year teaching at the University of Mississippi. In his five years at the defendant College Dr. McNeil was paid $4,900.00 more than Dr. McKinney in 1968-69 (in which year neither had received their doctorate), $4,400.00 more in 1969-70, $4,700.00 more in 1970-71, and in 1971-72, $5,400.00 more in 1972-73, and $5,700.00 more in 1973-74. In 1976-77, the year that Dr. McKinney received her Ph.D, she was paid $12,600.00, only $100.00 more than Dr. McNeil was paid in 1968-69 when he first came to Georgia Southwestern. He also received substantially more than Ms. Sawyer, Sisk, and Parks.

2. Dr. Clifton A. Baxter--Dr. Baxter came to Georgia Southwestern College in 1972 with only part-time teaching experience. He obtained his Ed.D. in 1974 with a specialty in business data processing and was promoted to Associate Professor the following year. He teaches or has taught business law, business communication, accounting, introduction to computer application, Fortran IV programming and a variety of other courses. During 1973-74, at a time when neither had yet received a doctorate degree, Dr. Baxter was paid $900.00 more than Dr. McKinney. During each succeeding year each received salary increases but Dr. Baxter stayed ahead of Dr. McKinney. In 1977-78, when both held doctorates, Dr. Baxter received $3,100.00 more than Dr. McKinney. The disparity in Dr. Baxter's salary and that of Ms. Sawyer ranged from $600.00 in 1973-74 (before Dr. Baxter received his Ed.D.) to approximately $4,700.00 in 1977-78. Dr. Baxter's starting salary in 1973-74 was $1,000.00 more than Ms. Sisk's salary during that year.

3. Jerry Rowland--Mr. Rowland is an Assistant Professor of Business Administration who came to Georgia Southwestern College in 1970-71. His highest degree is a M.B.A. obtained in 1968; he teaches in the area of marketing and management. Mr. Rowland began at a salary of $2,100.00 to $2,200.00 greater than that of Dr. McKinney, Ms. Sisk and Ms. Sawyer, all of whom had comparable or higher degrees. In 1977-78 Mr. Rowland was paid $2,700.00 more than Ms. Sisk, and approximately $1,500.00 more than Ms. Sawyer.

4. James Faircloth--Mr. Faircloth is an Associate Professor and teaches all levels of accounting. He holds a Masters of Science in accounting and has received his Certified Public Accountant (CPA...