Judge rules against Illinois State professor in wage discrimination case

Meredith Downes, a professor within the Administration and Qualitative Strategies Division in ISU’s School of Enterprise, had alleged that she had confronted wage discrimination as a lady and had confronted retaliation, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

U.S. District Decide Michael M. Mihm issued his choice in favor of ISU and towards Downes on Friday. It got here in response to the college’s movement for abstract judgment, a kind of courtroom ruling reached with out the case going to a full trial. 

Downes’ lawyer, Robert Porter of Costigan and Wollrab, declined to touch upon the end result or a possible attraction, as did ISU spokesman Eric Jome. Each stated they don’t usually touch upon litigation.

In her lawsuit, Downes had stated she had been constantly paid lower than male professors within the division and denied alternatives the opposite professors obtained. The retaliation declare was in regard to a remark made by a former chair who stated that a few of Downes’ accusations towards one other former chair could possibly be slander.

A lot of Mihm’s opinion is predicated on ISU’s elevate system, which incorporates efficiency evaluations and potential use of extra funds to deal with pay fairness considerations. These considerations embody wage inversion, when newer professors are employed when market salaries are larger, so are paid greater than professors who’ve been within the division longer. 

Wage inversion and compression are “systemic points” for ISU, the choose wrote.

Mihm additionally famous that many of the male colleagues to whom Downes in contrast herself didn’t maintain comparable positions. Causes embody them being named Distinguished or College professors, being chair or holding different administrative positions, all of which elevated their pay.

Downes didn’t dispute any of her efficiency analysis outcomes, that are used to find out raises, Mihm wrote. Since 2016, she has additionally been receiving bigger raises, partially as a result of efforts to deal with wage inversion. 

On the retaliation declare, Mihm stated Downes had not sufficiently proven that she had confronted an hostile response for participating in motion protected underneath legislation. He additional wrote that the chair who obtained Downes’ grievance had tried to advocate for the professor’s development, allocating more cash for fairness raises and recommending Downes for an endowed professor place.