Mitchell v. Jefferson County Bd. of Educ.

• Decision Date: 23 July 1991
• Docket Number: No. 90-7538,90-7538
• Citation: Mitchell v. Jefferson County Bd. of Educ., 936 F.2d 539 (11th Cir. 1991)
• Parties: 56 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 644, 30 Wage & Hour Cas. (BN 730, 56 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 40,897, 119 Lab.Cas. P 35,512, 68 Ed. Law Rep. 284 Janie MITCHELL, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. JEFFERSON COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

Page 539

936 F.2d 539

56 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 644,

30 Wage & Hour Cas. (BN 730,

56 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 40,897,

119 Lab.Cas. P 35,512, 68 Ed. Law Rep. 284

Janie MITCHELL, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. JEFFERSON COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 90-7538.

United States Court of Appeals Eleventh Circuit.

July 23, 1991.

As Amended Sept. 10, 1991.

James Mendelsohn, Richard J. Ebbinghouse, Robert L. Wiggins, Jr., Gordon, Silberman, Wiggins & Childs, P.C., Birmingham, Ala., for plaintiff-appellant.

Carl E. Johnson, Jr., Jack Merrell Nolen, Jr., Bishop, Colvin & Johnson, Birmingham, Ala., for defendant-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.

Before HATCHETT and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges, and LIVELY ^*, Senior Circuit Judge.

LIVELY, Senior Circuit Judge:

This is an action under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000e et seq. and the Equal Pay Act of 1963, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 206(d). The plaintiff, a female employee of the defendant, appeals from a judgment for the defendant on all claims, entered following a bench trial.

I.

Janie Mitchell has been employed since 1970 by the defendant Jefferson County Board of Education, which operates a school district in Alabama. She was initially hired to perform secretarial duties at the school district's Rosedale facility. Within three months of her initial employment, Ms. Mitchell's primary duties had shifted to collating printed materials manually. In 1975, Ms. Mitchell was transferred to work in the Textbooks and Printing Department at the Board's newly established textbook and resource center at Ketona. Shortly after being transferred to the Ketona facility, Ms. Mitchell began training as an offset printer. Since that time she has operated an A.B.Dick offset press. In addition to her primary duties as a printer, Ms. Mitchell occasionally operates the camera used in offset printing, stamps textbooks when they are received by the school district and before they are distributed to the students, and answers the telephone at times. Ms Mitchell performed essentially these same duties from 1975 through the commencement of trial. According to the Board, Ms. Mitchell's official job title is that of Printing Equipment Operator I. The job description for this position states that Ms. Mitchell's primary responsibilities include the assembly of materials for reproduction, the coordination of production with other employees, the assistance in training of other workers, and the operation of the presses, collators and cameras.

Ms. Mitchell based her claims of discrimination on a comparison of her wages with those of a male co-worker, Ervin Wilkerson, who was hired by the Board in 1969 to perform printing duties. Like Ms. Mitchell, he also began work at the Rosedale facility but was transferred in 1974 to the new facility in Ketona. Mr. Wilkerson initially operated an A.B.Dick offset press but shortly after moving to Ketona he was assigned to operate a newly purchased Davidson press. According to the defendant, Mr. Wilkerson's official job title is Printing Equipment Operator II. The job description for this position states that Mr. Wilkerson's primary responsibilities include laying out copy for the camera, making display copy, operating the camera and the headliner machine, coordinating job projects with the offset operator, and assisting in the training of other workers.

In 1975, the Board instituted its first formal salary schedule (1975 schedule) pertaining to classified personnel, or those employees who did not hold a certificate for teaching, such as secretaries, teachers aides, custodians and printers. The 1975 schedule established seven named pay grades, and each grade contained either six or eleven steps. There is scant evidence about the process by which each classified employee was placed on the 1975 salary schedule. The director of classified personnel, who had been employed in that position since 1984, testified that it was her understanding that the 1975 salary schedule was implemented as a result of bargaining between the Board and some employee representatives, and that no employee's pay was reduced as a result of the implementation of the new schedule. According to Ms. Mitchell's personnel record, in the academic year 1975-76, which was the first year that the 1975 schedule was implemented, Ms. Mitchell was ranked as a Common Laborer, step 3, and was earning $422.00 per month. According to Mr. Wilkerson's personnel record, in the academic year 1975-76, he was ranked two grades higher than Ms. Mitchell and placed on the Apprentice grade, step 2, with a monthly salary of $620.00.

Under the Board's salary policy applicable to the 1975 schedule, each employee would progress one step per year within the grade in which he or she had been placed. When an employee reached step six in one of the two grades that had only six steps, that person would be placed on step one of the next highest grade. But once an employee reached step eleven of any of the five grades that had eleven steps, that employee was considered to have "topped out," or to be ineligible for an automatic annual elevation to the next grade.

Also under the Board's salary policy, an employee could receive a merit raise outside the annual step increases. Ms. Mitchell received a merit raise in 1978 and Mr. Wilkerson received one in 1980. On November 1, 1980, Mr. Wilkerson moved from Apprentice, step 6 to Journeyman, step 1. His monthly salary increased to $1063.72. At the time of Mr. Wilkerson's merit raise, Ms. Mitchell was on the Semi-Skilled scale, step 8, earning $912.92 monthly.

In August 1985, the Board adopted and implemented a new salary schedule (1985 schedule). The new schedule was adopted in part as a result of the Board's negotiations with its employees' representatives, who had been expressing dissatisfaction over the fact that the lower paid employees had to progress seventeen steps before the possibility of advancement to the next grade. The new salary schedule reduced the number of grades from seven to five by combining Common Laborer and Semi-Skilled into Pay Grade I and combining Apprentice and Journeyman into Pay Grade II. In addition, all five of the new pay grades now had eleven steps each, so that the former seventeen steps of Pay Grade I and Pay Grade II had to be compressed. In order to make the transition from the 1975 schedule to the 1985 schedule, classified personnel were given their annual step increases if they had not "topped out," and then placed on the new salary schedule at the grade and step that was closest to but not lower than their salary under the 1975 schedule. In addition, following placement on the 1985 schedule, all service employees received a state-mandated raise.

The conversion from the old schedule to the new one had differing effects on the employees' salaries. Immediately prior to the implementation of the 1985 salary schedule, Ms. Mitchell was on the Apprentice scale, step 1, earning $7.23 per hour. Because of her eligibility for the annual step increase, she was automatically advanced one grade to Apprentice, step 2, with an hourly wage of $7.29. This latter figure was translated onto the new salary schedule, which placed Ms. Mitchell in Pay Grade II, Step 2, at $7.38 per hour. She was then given the state-mandated raise to $8.02 per hour. After the automatic annual step increase and prior to the state-mandated raise, that is, considering solely the effect of the new salary schedule, Ms. Mitchell received a nine cent per hour increase, or a 1.2% increase from her former salary.

Immediately prior to the implementation of the new schedule, Mr. Wilkerson was on the Journeyman scale, step 5, earning $8.39 per hour. Because of his eligibility for an annual increase, he was advanced to Journeyman, step 6, with a corresponding hourly wage of $8.45. The latter figure was translated onto the new salary schedule, which placed Mr. Wilkerson in Pay Grade II, step 10, earning $8.58 per hour. The state-mandated increase elevated his pay to $9.22 per hour. Considering solely the effect of the conversion to the new salary schedule, Mr. Wilkerson received a thirteen cent per hour increase, or 1.5% increase from his former salary. Thus, under the new schedule Ms. Mitchell and Mr. Wilkerson received comparable raises when considered as a percentage of their old salaries.

In September 1987, Ms. Mitchell first learned that she was being paid less than Mr. Wilkerson because of a casual remark he had made about "topping out," or reaching step eleven in Pay Grade II. By this time, she was also in Pay Grade II, but only at step 4.

II.

After complaining of unequal treatment and receiving an unsatisfactory response from the Board, Ms. Mitchell filed a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on October 24, 1987. The charge stated in pertinent part:

I was denied equal pay for my position as a printer by my employer ... I was not provided a reasonable explanation for the different [sic] in the pay increase granted a male in the printing department, and the small increase I was granted in September 1987.

The EEOC issued a right to sue letter, and Ms. Mitchell filed a timely suit in the district court.

A.

The district court complaint is quite short, and alleges violations of both Title VII and the Equal Pay Act (EPA). The complaint states only generally that the defendant "discriminated on the basis of sex against the plaintiff with respect to the training, job assignments, promotion, wages, and terms, conditions, and privileges of employment." This is taken almost verbatim from section 703(a)(1) of Title VII. More specifically, the complaint alleges that in September 1986, "a male was advanced from printer step 4 to printer step 11." If this statement is intended to allege a problem with the implementation of the 1985 salary schedule, both the date and the...