Princeton University Will Pay A Million Dollars In Back Pay To Female Professors In Discrimination Case Settlement

Also Read: International Equal Pay Day: Seven Facts About Gender Based Pay Gap

Gender Pay Gap at Princeton University

Between the year 2012 and the year 2014, the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs found that 106 women who were in full professor positions at Princeton University were paid less than their male colleagues. Reaching an early resolution based on these preliminary findings, Princeton University agreed to pay $925,000 in back pay and at least $250,000 in future salary adjustments to these women professors. Further, the university has also agreed to conduct statistical analyses to determine any other significant discrimination against women professors, also pay equity training for its staff.

Also Read: US Women Soccer Team Loses The Equal Pay Case

Ben Chang, a spokesman for the university, said in a statement. "The University contested the OFCCP's allegation because it was based on a flawed statistical model that grouped all full professors together regardless of department and thus bore no resemblance to how the University actually hires, evaluates, and compensates its faculty," Chang said. He also revealed that the university agreed to the resolution in an effort to "avoid expensive and lengthy litigation."

Also Read: Stop Using Biological Differences To Justify Gender Discrimination

According to Princeton’s Office of Institutional Research, women made up 32 percent of the University’s 814 tenured and tenure-track faculty in 2019-20. The Chronicle of Higher Education reported that full professors at the university earned an average of $248,252 in 2018-19, second only to Stanford University among US institutions. While male professors were paid an average of $252,805, women earned $234,593 on an average.

Women are paid 16 percent less in wages than men on an average, according to UN's global statistics. However, women of colour, immigrant women and women with children are at the risk of being paid even lesser. In India, men earn Rs 46.19 more than their women counterparts as a result of which the current gender pay gap stands at 19 percent. Read more about gender pay gap here.

Picture Credit: adamsmith.org