Schwartz v. Florida Bd. of Regents

• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit
• Writing for the Court: Before GODBOLD and VANCE; GODBOLD
• Citation: Schwartz v. Florida Bd. of Regents, 807 F.2d 901 (11th Cir. 1987)
• Decision Date: 13 January 1987
• Docket Number: No. 85-3975,85-3975
• Parties: 43 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 1856, 27 Wage & Hour Cas. (BN 1628, 42 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 36,783, 105 Lab.Cas. P 34,859, 36 Ed. Law Rep. 632 Louis SCHWARTZ, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. FLORIDA BOARD OF REGENTS, et al., Defendants-Appellees.

Page 901

807 F.2d 901

43 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 1856,

27 Wage & Hour Cas. (BN 1628,

42 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 36,783,

105 Lab.Cas. P 34,859, 36 Ed. Law Rep. 632

Louis SCHWARTZ, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. FLORIDA BOARD OF REGENTS, et al., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 85-3975.

United States Court of Appeals Eleventh Circuit.

Jan. 13, 1987.

John D. Carlson, Tallahassee, Fla., for plaintiff-appellant.

Bruce A. Minnick, Asst. Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, Fla., for defendants-appellees.

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

Before GODBOLD and VANCE, Circuit Judges, and SWYGERT ^*, Senior Circuit Judge.

GODBOLD, Circuit Judge:

This is a sex discrimination suit involving Dr. Louis Schwartz, a male university teacher at Florida State University. Dr. Schwartz sued FSU in 1978, complaining that he was being inequitably treated because of his sex by not being allowed to participate in the legislatively mandated salary equity studies being conducted at FSU and that as a result he was being inequitably paid in comparison to comparable female faculty members.

A settlement agreement was reached under which adjustments were made to Dr. Schwartz's 1979-80 base salary, and the University agreed that he could participate in any future salary equity study if men were allowed to participate (i.e., that he could make a claim, with supporting data, that he was entitled to a salary adjustment). He gave a general release, and the suit was dismissed. Later Dr. Schwartz filed this suit, asserting pay disparity based on sex and race for periods after 1979-80. There was no evidence of racial discrimination, and such claims have dropped out of the case. The case involves construction of the settlement agreement and also differing statistical methods for calculating salary to which Dr. Schwartz was entitled after 1979-80. The district court found he had suffered no pay disparity after May 1980 and entered judgment for defendants. We reverse.

Concern at FSU in the late 1960's and early 1970's about equalizing the salaries of female faculty members with those of male faculty members led to two task forces that issued reports finding inequities in the salaries of female faculty members and recommending adjustments to the salaries of a number of women. In addition, in 1976 the Florida legislature enacted a statute requiring universities to conduct annual salary studies to determine which female faculty members were being paid less in comparison with their male counterparts, and to adjust their salaries accordingly. Fla.Stat. 241.735 (1976). ¹ Dr. Schwartz, a full professor in the Department of Childhood, Reading and Special Education of the College of Education, was denied the opportunity to participate in these studies. He filed a grievance with FSU complaining that the attempt to correct prior disparate treatment between males and females had gone too far and that the cure itself was discriminatory.

After his grievance was denied, Schwartz filed an action in district court against the defendants or their predecessors in office, complaining that he was being inequitably treated because of his sex by not being allowed to participate in the salary equity studies and that as a result he was being inequitably paid. In 1979 the Florida legislature amended the statute discussed above by eliminating its operative effect to females only, requiring that salary studies include men, and that discrimination in the granting of all salaries be eradicated. Fla.Stat. 240.247 (1979). Schwartz then settled his suit. He gave the defendants a general release

of and from all manner of action and actions ... which against them I ever had, now have, or which my heirs ... can, shall or may have ... from the beginning of the world to the day of the date of these presents; pertaining to or related to [the 1978 action] ... and matters raised therein or that could have been raised therein and any matter relating to or arising out of my contractual relationship at Florida State University including, but not limited to, claims of sex discrimination, equal protection, and due process of the law through June 30, 1980.

In return for the release, and a stipulation of dismissal of the action with prejudice, Schwartz received a lump sum payment of $11,000; an agreement that his 1980-81 salary would be computed as if his base salary for 1979-80 had been $24,459 (i.e. a salary raise of $1,240 in his 1979-80 base pay), with specific instructions that it would in no way preclude him from being awarded any other additional pay increases to which he might be entitled for the 1980-81 year; and the unqualified right to participate in any salary equity study conducted after July 1, 1980, if men were allowed to participate in such study, with the proviso that it was recognized that by settling the case all issues arising from his initial employment at FSU through the end of the school year 1979-80 had been resolved to his satisfaction.

Despite the settlement agreement Schwartz was denied the right to participate in the 1980-81 salary equity study on the grounds that proviso language of the General Appropriations Bill and Letter of Intent for the 1979-81 biennium, passed by the legislature during the same session in which it amended the statute, still mandated that the studies be limited to females. In 1981 FSU announced that both male and female faculty members were eligible to participate in the yearly salary equity studies. During each of the years 1981-84 Schwartz prepared and submitted claims for salary adjustments. In addition, in 1982 the Board of Regents disseminated to FSU a regression analysis that used a number of objective criteria to identify persons whose salaries deviated significantly from the predicted salary level. The 1982-83 and 1983-84 regression analyses performed by FSU identified Schwartz as having a salary that deviated significantly from his predicted salary. Schwartz's claims were denied each year by FSU on the ground that the discrepancy between his actual and expected salary was not caused by sexual discrimination.

Schwartz's final complaint alleged violations of various statutory and constitutional provisions prohibiting pay disparity based upon sex. After the submission of several motions by both parties and the filing of a second and third amended complaint by Schwartz, defendants moved for partial summary judgment. The district court granted summary judgment on several issues, leaving Schwartz with the following causes of action against the regents and the state officials in their official capacities: a Title VII claim based on the 1980-81 pay equity study; Equal Pay Act claims for the academic years 1980-81 through 1983-84; and 42 U.S.C. Secs. 1981, 1983, and 1988 claims for those same years.

At trial both sides presented expert statistical testimony. Schwartz's expert, Dr. McClave, did a linear regression analysis of the salaries of seven female full professors in the College of Education at FSU with whom Schwartz had compared himself in his claims for salary adjustments. He found that among the myriad of factors that might explain salary and salary increases at FSU, the three factors that produced the greatest degree of reliability were discipline, rank, and years in rank.

Dr. McClave developed the following statistical formula for comparing the salaries of full professors in the College of Education. He compared the salaries of each of the seven female professors, from which he derived a base salary for each year in question; the base salary is the amount a full professor who has zero to one year in that rank would earn. He developed for each year a multiplier factor representing the value of one year in that rank. The base salary and the multiplier factor changed each year to keep up with inflation. ² To arrive at the salary a professor should have received in a particular year (this is what Dr. McClave refers to as the professor's "projected salary"), Dr. McClave multiplied the value of one year in rank for that year by the number of years the subject had held the rank of full professor and added this to the base salary. Based upon his analysis Dr. McClave testified that Schwartz was paid significantly less than he should have been during the years 1980-85: in 1980-81 he was more than three standard deviations below the salary projected by the formula and was more than six below in 1984-85. According to Dr. McClave's analysis, none of the females was more than two standard deviations from the salary she should have received.

The district court found that in the settlement agreement Schwartz had "agreed that he no longer suffered from any disparity in pay." In light of this the district court found Dr. McClave's formula to have one inherent limitation: because an initial discrepancy in salary will continually widen, even if one receives equal treatment thereafter, the formula would demonstrate an ever-increasing pay disparity. In an effort to correct this the district court adjusted the formula to incorporate an assumption that as of the settlement agreement there was no pay disparity. The district court's formula worked as follows. To determine the amount that Schwartz's salary should have increased from 1980-81 to 1981-82, ³ the court subtracted the 1980-81 base salary from the 1981-82 base salary and added to that figure the 1980-81 value of one year in rank. It then added this figure to Schwartz's actual salary for 1980-81 to arrive at the salary Schwartz should have received in 1981-82 to be on a par with his colleagues. ⁴ The same formula was used for each subsequent year by inserting the base salary, value of one year in rank, and actual salary for the year at issue. ⁵

Using the revised formula to calculate the salary Schwartz should have earned, and using Dr. McClave's original formula to calculate the salaries to which the seven female full professors chosen as Schwartz's comparators were...