Ridgway v. United Hospitals-Miller Div., HOSPITALS-MILLER
| Decision Date | 19 October 1977 |
| Docket Number | No. 76-1958,HOSPITALS-MILLER,76-1958 |
| Parties | 16 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 345, 23 Wage & Hour Cas. (BN 535, 15 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 7886 Janice M. RIDGWAY, Appellee, v. UNITEDDIVISION, Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit |
Bruce E. Hanson of Doherty, Rumble & Butler, St. Paul, Minn., argued, filed appendix and brief, for appellant.
Ellen Dresselhuis, Minneapolis, Minn., argued and filed brief, for appellee.
Before GIBSON, Chief Judge, and BRIGHT and HENLEY, Circuit Judges.
United Hospitals-Miller Division, hereinafter called the defendant or the Hospital, appeals from a judgment of the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota 1 holding the defendant liable to plaintiff in damages for sexual discrimination in the matter of pay, prohibited by the Equal Pay Act of 1963, 29 U.S.C. § 206(d). 2 Plaintiff sought to recover double damages, plus costs and a reasonable attorney's fee as provided by § 16(b) of the F.L.S.A., 29 U.S.C. § 216(b).
The defendant denied liability, and the case was the subject of a bench trial after the conclusion of which the trial judge filed a memorandum opinion setting out his findings of fact and conclusions of law. The district court found that plaintiff had been the victim of sexual discrimination in pay in violation of the Act, and that her actual damages amounted to $1995.00. Judgment in favor of the plaintiff was entered in the principal amount of $3990.00 ($1995.00 doubled), plus costs, together with an attorney's fee which the district court set at the sum of $3100.00. The defendant has taken a timely appeal to this court.
The statute, 29 U.S.C. § 206(d)(1), relied on by plaintiff 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 other 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 subsection, reduce the wage rate of any employee.
Aside from the questions of sexual discrimination vel non and the amount of damages sustained by plaintiff, there is no real dispute about the facts.
The defendant is a Minnesota corporation which is engaged in the business of operating hospitals. The hospital with which we are concerned, and which was formerly known as the Miller Hospital, is located in St. Paul, Minnesota. It has a department of ophthalmology and a department of urology. Surgery in both of those fields is performed by specialists who are aided in their work by appropriate supporting teams including anesthesiologists, technicians and nurses.
Plaintiff has been a licensed practical nurse for more than twenty years and has specialized in ophthalmic surgery. She may properly be called an ophthalmological technician. In 1971 plaintiff was an employee of the Hospital and was receiving a salary of $595.00 per month. It was her duty to perform various tasks in the operating room while ophthalmic surgery was being performed.
In February, 1971 the defendant, after some negotiations, employed Michael Bolz, a male, as a "urological assistant." He performed tasks in the operating room while urological surgery was being performed similar to the tasks performed by the plaintiff in connection with eye operations.
Defendant had never before employed a urological assistant, and the hospital management was somewhat at a loss as to what to pay Mr. Bolz. It was finally decided, however, to pay him $595.00 per month, which was the same salary that the plaintiff was receiving at the time. However, the Hospital represented to Bolz that he would have additional work opportunities in the Hospital that would provide him with additional income.
Bolz was a married man with children, and he desired to buy a home, financing his purchase through a local savings and loan association. In connection with his proposed financing the Hospital furnished to the savings and loan association a projection of Bolz's actual and prospective compensation, which projection included the additional overtime compensation that it was expected that Bolz would receive for work to be performed by him in addition to his regular duties. In making its loan to Bolz the savings and loan association relied at least to some extent on the information supplied by the Hospital.
As stated, Bolz started out at the same salary as that which plaintiff was receiving. Effective July 12, 1971 plaintiff's salary was raised to $620.00 which put her ahead of Bolz as far as stated salary was concerned. Effective August 12, 1971 the salary of Bolz was increased to $620.00 per month which put him on a par with plaintiff. Effective July 10, 1972 plaintiff's monthly salary was raised to $650.00 per month; Bolz received no raise at that time.
By late 1972 it had become apparent that the extra and overtime work that the Hospital had promised Bolz would not be forthcoming, and Bolz became dissatisfied and started looking for another job. The Hospital denied at first that it had promised any overtime to Bolz, but it receded from that position when confronted with the projection that it had furnished to the savings and loan association. The Hospital did not want to lose Bolz, and it was agreed that effective February 27, 1973 his salary would be $700.00 per month as against plaintiff's salary of $650.00 per month. It was also agreed that if Bolz remained in the employ of the Hospital the latter would pay him each month of his continued employment an additional $85.00 per month for as long as necessary to make up the difference between his actual salary and $700.00 per month for the period between his original employment and February 27, 1973.
Effective April 16, 1973 the salary of plaintiff was increased to $680.00 per month. As of that time Bolz was being paid a basic salary of $700.00 per month plus the additional sum of $85.00 per month in line with the agreement between him and the Hospital.
Plaintiff was highly displeased with the salary differential that has been described, and although the Hospital tried to mollify her and promised to pay her more money at some indefinite time in the future, plaintiff resigned from her position on July 13, 1973 and has not been employed by the Hospital since that time.
On the crucial issue of job comparability, the district court found:
The evidence establishes that the content of the plaintiff's job as an ophthalmology technician was comparable in terms of skill, effort and responsibility to the content of Bolz's job as a urology assistant and that the jobs were performed under similar working conditions. Both jobs entailed surgical assistance. The duties, responsibilities and amount of effort required of both an ophthalmology technician and urology assistant depended on whether the technician or assistant scrubbed or circulated. If the technician or assistant scrubbed, he or she directly assisted the doctor. If the technician or assistant circulated, he or she checked and prepared the surgical room and instruments. Both were responsible for recording a description of the surgical procedure, vital signs, and any drugs administered during surgery. Both were responsible for the safe return of the patient to his or her room following surgery. Both the ophthalmology technician and the urology assistant were responsible for instructing other employees on matters relating to the operation of their respective departments. Based on the testimony of Elaine Metcalf, supervisor for both plaintiff and Bolz, the positions of ophthalmology technician and urology assistant were comparable under the Hospital's system of evaluating job classifications. The Hospital required comparable qualifications for the two jobs.
Having found the facts, the district court proceeded to draw substantially the following conclusions of law:
Under the Act the burden was on the plaintiff to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the Hospital had paid different wages to employees of opposite sexes "for equal work on jobs the performance of which requires equal skill, effort, and responsibility, and which are...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Truckenmiller v. Burgess Health Ctr.
...provisions that became Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq.” Ridgway v. United Hospitals–Miller Div., 563 F.2d 923, 924 n. 2 (8th Cir.1977). The substantive provisions of the EPA are codified at 29 U.S.C. § 206(d). That statute provides, in the part pertinent......
-
Thompson v. Sawyer
...gun barrels with somewhat larger but slower presses than those employed by the women assemblers. See also Ridgway v. United Hospitals-Miller Division, 563 F.2d 923 (8th Cir. 1977) (job of female surgical assistant in opthamology substantially equal to job of male surgical assistant in urolo......
-
Peters v. City of Shreveport
...employer's defense that its various job descriptions constituted a merit system or a factor other than sex); Ridgway v. United Hospitals-Miller Div., 563 F.2d 923 (8th Cir.1977) (female technician paid less than male technician performing same duties; court rejects defense that employer and......
-
Herndon v. Wm. A. Straub, Inc., 4:95-CV-2051 CAS.
...the amount of attorneys' fees to award to prevailing plaintiffs in civil rights cases. See, e.g., Ridgway v. United Hospitals-Miller Div., 563 F.2d 923, 927 (8th Cir.1977); Halferty v. Pulse Drug Co., Inc., 821 F.2d 261, 271-72 (5th Cir.), rev'd in part on other grounds on rehearing, 826 F.......