Students walk to class on campus at the University of Colorado Boulder on Monday, August 26, 2024. (Andrew Wevers, CU Independent)
Nearly 400 female faculty at the University of Colorado Boulder will receive a cumulative back pay of $4.5 million from the university following the settlement of a lawsuit filed alleging discrimination towards female professors’ wages.
The settlement also requires the university to conduct salary equity analyses every three years and publish all faculty members’ salaries to the public annually. This wage database will also be readily available to job applicants applying to work at the university.
The settlement comes after female faculty members filed a lawsuit against the university after a 2021 equity review revealed that 386 female faculty members were receiving significantly lower wages than their male counterparts with similar roles and job requirements.
Katie Little, a CU professor from the English department and one of the lead plaintiffs in the lawsuit, first brought forth concerns of salary discrimination among female faculty members in 2015, before the 2021 equity review that ultimately exposed the truth in her concerns. At the time, her concerns were dismissed.
“It’s very demoralizing and discouraging to find out that your employer doesn’t value you as much as some other faculty who are less accomplished,” Little said. “It’s even more demoralizing to be told you’re wrong [about pay discrimination], when you know you are right… It has made CU a more difficult place to work than it needs to be.”
The salary differences Little mentioned violated the Equal Pay for Equal Work Act, which took effect in Colorado in January 2021. The act aims to minimize gender wage gaps by ensuring employees are paid equally for similar jobs, regardless of their gender. Another part of the act ensures that workplaces are transparent about salaries and conduct equity reviews to ensure equality within financial treatment at workplaces.
Following the 2021 equity review, the hundreds of CU female faculty members who were found to have been paid unequally to their male counterparts received increases in their salaries.
However, they did not receive back pay for the amount of money they were not paid in previous years due to alleged gender discrimination. Back pay to these faculty members is required by the law.
Little explained her reaction to receiving a raise, but not back pay.
“When I received the raise in 2022, I tried to find out about the salary grievance process and to track down the salaries so I could compare my salary with my colleagues. But I didn’t get the information I needed,” Little said. “When I told friends and family about my raise, they immediately asked why I hadn’t received back pay. So, I contacted an attorney, and they began working with me on getting redress. As we worked on this process, I heard about other women who were also concerned, and I joined forces with them.”
Following a lengthy negotiation with the university, Little and some of the other women, including Shelly Miller, a CU Boulder mechanical engineering professor, filed a class action lawsuit.
“[In] early 2023, colleagues began reaching out to women faculty they knew who had received adjustments and asked if they were willing to join a class action lawsuit as a class representative,” Miller said. “The class representatives negotiate on behalf of the whole class for monetary compensation as well as non-monetary changes. I was contacted and learned about the effort and decided to sign on.”
According to Miller, 16 class representatives worked through all the issues for over a year, representing all 386 women who got adjustments made to their salaries.
“We, the class reps, really want to change the culture to one of fairness,” Little said.
Adair Teuton, a CU Boulder senior, believes the settlement went in the right direction, and said she was shocked to realize how many female faculty members were not being paid equal to some male faculty members.
“I totally agree with the settlement,” Teuton said in a statement. “I think it’s CU’s responsibility to conduct an equity analysis every few years, so there is wage transparency and so gender-based wage disparities that may exist can be addressed accordingly. I was surprised to see how many women were experiencing lower pay at CU, many being in esteemed fields of work. I think being transparent about salary and wages is crucial for any institution, and I do hope other universities follow suit.”
Seth Benezra, an attorney for the female faculty members who filed the lawsuit, said in a statement that he commends CU Boulder for making meaningful changes and that he hopes this settlement will inspire other Colorado universities to follow CU Boulder’s lead.
Following the settlement, the university issued a statement.
“CU Boulder is committed to providing fair and equitable wages to all employees across all disciplines,” said university spokesperson Nicole Mueksch. “As part of its continuous commitment to salary equity, the university will ensure academic units maintain salary equity among faculty members, maintain transparency in faculty salaries and conduct a campus-wide salary equity analysis every three years.”
Little said she wants CU Boulder leadership, not just a spokesperson, to acknowledge the pay discrimination problem and their commitment to fixing it.
“Up to this lawsuit, they have ignored the problem of pay discrimination,” Little said. “It’s a shame it took a statute to make them care about equity, but they have now taken the first step.”
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Hannah Brennan at hannah.brennan@colorado.edu.
