Legal issues and statistical approaches to reverse pay discrimination in higher education

There have been numerous lawsuits within higher education brought by females over pay inequity and many articles have been written on the topic. Although not as prevalent, there have been some recent instances where male faculty have claimed—with some degree of success—that the process used by their institutions to make salary adjustments for females was unfair and led to reverse pay discrimination. In this paper, we examine some of the legal issues and statistical approaches surrounding claims of reverse sex discrimination in pay in the field of higher education. We begin by reviewing the way in which legal cases examine sex discrimination in pay in academe and the different approaches that institutions can take to remove pay disparities for women. We show that across-the-board salary adjustments for women are less likely than individualized salary adjustments to raise concerns about the salary determination process and possibly reverse discrimination, and lead to lower costs to the institution. These differences arise regardless of the salary model specification used by an institution when making salary adjustments. Finally, we use a model developed by the plaintiffs in a salary equity study at one institution to demonstrate the effects of using different adjustment methods on the total cost to the institution when making salary equity adjustments for both genders.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the seminar series for the Institute of Higher Education, University of Georgia. We would like to thank participants at this seminar and Andrew Luna for comments on previous drafts of this paper.     

Salary Structure Effects and the Gender Pay Gap in Academia

This paper presents estimates of the gender salary gap and discrimination based on the most recent national faculty survey data. New estimates for 1999 indicate that male faculty members still earn 20.7% more than comparable female colleagues. Depending upon which decomposition technique is employed, the portion of this gap attributable to discrimination is 17% or, 19–23%. Both estimates of the unexplained salary gap are lower than previous estimates. Furthermore, application of the Juhn technique shows that differences in salary structure, especially between research and liberal arts institutions, constitutes an important determinant of the relative gender pay gap between institutional types.     

SEX AS PREDICTIVE OF SALARY AND STATUS ON A UNIVERSITY FACULTY

An investigation of the existence and extent of sex-based inequities in rank and pay on a University faculty yielded several suggestions of discrimination against women. Data on professional experience, publications, honors, rank and pay were collected by means of a questionnaire distributed to 372 faculty members. Within a sample of 128 who answered all requisite items, sex added significantly to the predictability of salary beyond that achieved by multiple measures of merit and experience, including mean salary for rank and department. Sex itself did not predict rank or a measure designed to reflect speed of advancement through the ranks. Terms reflecting interactions of sex and merit were capable of improving prediction of all three status measures, however, suggesting differences in the reward structure for the sexes.     

Substitution of women for men faculty in higher education: Do relative salaries matter?

The paper provides quantitative estimates of the degree of substitutability between men and women faculty in higher education and examines the extent to which price (salary) differentials have played a role in altering the sex distribution in academe. Our results suggest uniformly low own-price elasticities with cross elasticities which differ by academic rank and sex. Further analysis is made of whether institutions of higher education have increased the proportion of females at the upper ranks due to salary factors. Our conclusion is that nonsalary factors appear to have been responsible for the changing sex distribution in academe.     

市场机制下高校教师人力资源配置探究

从师资市场角度来分析高校师资配置,总结计划经济和市场经济下高校教师人力资源配置模。结合制度经济学理论,提出了在当前的市场环境情况下高校在教师人力资源配置方面,应该完善全国性师资市场,深化校内人事分配制度改革,发挥非正式制度的作用。     

Faculty Salaries and the Maximization of Prestige

Through the lens of the emerging economic theory of higher education, we look at the relationship between salary and prestige. Starting from the premise that academic institutions seek to maximize prestige, we hypothesize that monetary rewards are higher for faculty activities that confer prestige. We use data from the 1999 National Study of Postsecondary Faculty (NSOPF), and regression analysis to examine the determinants of salaries. The results are consistent with the theory that faculty members are financially rewarded for enhancing institutional prestige. There is some evidence that the rewards are higher in science and engineering. Spending more time on teaching has no effect on salary, even in comprehensive universities and liberal arts colleges. Findings suggest that other types of institutions are emulating research institutions in their pursuit of prestige. Looking at faculty salaries through this lens raises serious questions about the implications of the current reward system in higher education. Article Note Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the Economics of Education seminar, Stanford University School of Education, March 2004, and the American Education Finance Association, Louisville, KY, May 2005.     

Issues in choosing a strategy for achieving salary equity

This paper focuses on the issues involved in selecting a strategy that could be carried out by institutions to achieve salary equity between male and female faculty. My goal is to provide institutional researchers, analysts, and administrators with an understanding of the major issues that are involved in formulating a salary adjustment plan. I provide an overview of strategies that institutions could employ, and examine how they compare based on equity of salary adjustments, political constraints, cost to the institution, and whether the plan removes inequities.     

Evaluating the quality of American universities: A new approach

Considerable effort has been devoted to developing systematic rankings of the quality of American univerities. Some approaches focus on the assessments of knowledgeable individuals. Other approaches necessitate the accumulation of considerable data and the construction of some composite measure. The present article argues that researchers should devote more attention to faculty salary data. Utilizing the quartile deviation as a measure of institutional quality, the authors ranked the 138 major universities designated by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) as Class I institutions. Because the authors' results were not strikingly different from other ranking systems and because salary data are readily available, the authors argue that studies of faculty salaries hold great promise as measures of institutional quality.     

Gender salary differences in economics departments in Japan

By using unique survey data, we conduct a detailed study of the gender salary gap within economics departments in Japan. Despite the presence of rigid pay scales emphasizing age and experience, there is a 7% gender salary gap after controlling for rank and detailed personal, job, institutional and human capital characteristics. This gender salary gap exists within ranks. We find no gender promotion differences. In addition, we find a concentration of the salary gap in public universities and in research oriented universities. Our results show no evidence that the gender salary gap is reducing over time, and reject the hypothesis that females’ choice between household work and market activities is responsible for the gender salary gap.     

Literature Conceptualizing Women in Community Colleges: 1997–2007

Women are playing a major role in community colleges as students, staff, faculty, administrators, and presidents. Yet despite increasing representation, disparities exist between women and men in various roles within these institutions. This study reviewed literature published between 1997 and 2007 to examine the conceptualization of roles of women faculty members or senior-level leaders within the context of the community college. The emergent themes focused on faculty topics, leadership representation, and implications for institutional practices.     

Changing salary structure and faculty composition within business schools: Differences across sectors and state funding levels

We employ new data to examine how public higher education institutions adjusted the salaries and composition of their business faculty during a financially challenging period. The data's multilevel structure allows us to describe changes in between-institution inequality, within-institution inequality, and their interaction. To examine the role of finances, we compare public and private institutions and employ difference and fixed-effects models to study the effect of state appropriations. Our results indicate that financially stressed publics almost matched the salary increases of their competitors between 1999 and 2006, but reductions in the number of professorsespecially full professorsaccompanied this salary growth. The salary gap across public institutions increased, while within institutions, salary compression and salary inequality within rank grew.     

Evaluating faculty performance under the equal pay for equal work doctrine

The issue of sex discrimination in faculty employment has become a prominent legal and political concern, necessitating the development of objective empirical methods to determine the existence of patterns of discriminatory treatment. In this study, regression techniques are employed to apply the equal pay for equal work interpretation of the fair employment doctrine. Specifically, faculty promotion and salary policies at the University of Texas at Austin are analyzed to determine whether male and female faculty members are rewarded equally for equal academic qualifications and performances. This regression analysis tends to support the discrimination hypothesis with respect to both promotion and salary policies.     

A causal model of faculty turnover intentions

A causal model is proposed and estimated to assess the relative influence of individual attributes, institutional characteristics, contextual-work environment variables, and multiple measures of job satisfaction on the intentions of faculty to leave their current institutions. Special attention is given to similarities and differences among variables in the model for tenured and untenured faculty. Regardless of tenure status, younger faculty, those at institutions that have experienced decline and that have more autocratic forms of governance, and those that have lower levels of organizational and career satisfaction are more likely to leave their institutions. Being a male, spending more time on research, and having a stronger record of scholarly productivity are positive influences on the intentions of tenured faculty to leave their institution, while salary satisfaction is an influential variable only for nontenured faculty. The research and policy implications of these findings are discussed. Source of data: Carnegie Surveys of Undergraduates and Faculty. Copyright 1985, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, 1985.     

The Status of Women and Minorities Among Community College Faculty

This article uses data from the 1993 National Study of Postsecondary Faculty to examine the status of women and minorities among faculty employed at public 2-year colleges nationwide. A variety of outcomes are considered including: employment status, salary, rank, and tenure status. The analyses show that human capital, structural, and market characteristics appear to explain the observed differences in the employment experiences of women and men faculty at public 2-year colleges and some, but not all, of the observed racial/ethnic group differences. When compared with the results of other research, this study suggests fundamental differences in the reward structures for faculty at public 2- and 4-year institutions. Implications of the analyses are discussed.     

French academics: Between the professions and the civil service

In France, where most higher education institutions are in the public sector, permanent academic staff at universities and other higher education institutions are tenured and enjoy a broad individual autonomy. The number of staff on short-term contracts is limited. Most part-time staff are drawn from professionals, business executives, and administrators – in both the public and private sectors. In recent decades, the number of teaching-only faculty expanded rapidly as tenured secondary school teachers were transferred to higher education institutions. As universities have acquired some autonomy, especially in academic matters, recruitment and promotion of staff combine elements of centralisation at the national level with local processes. Some degree of pay differentiation has been introduced through a growing use of supplementary compensation. As the system evolves toward increased self-governance of institutions, the autonomy enjoyed by the faculty is seen by administrators as an obstacle to the development of institutional policies.     

A Loyalty Tax? National Measures of Academic Salary Compression

This paper presents measures of faculty salary compression for 1993 and 1999 based on national, rather than institutional-level, data. Using a recently developed technique and two national faculty surveys, actual junior to senior salary ratios are derived as well as predicted salary ratios that represent what the salary ratios would be if junior and senior faculty were similarly compensated for their productive traits. The analysis, which considers three alternative definitions of junior faculty and stratifies results by institutional type, produces an overall finding of no salary compression. A limited number of disciplines, including business and economics, however, do exhibit signs of salary compression.     

Reverse flow in academic mobility from core to periphery: motivations of international faculty working in Kazakhstan

Through expanding flows of labor and knowledge on a global scale, academics are increasingly mobile as higher education institutions compete for talent that transcends borders. However, talent often flows from the periphery to the core as scholars seek out employment in recognized institutions of higher learning in developed economies. This study examines faculty mobility in a reverse direction: from the core to Kazakhstan, the largest country in Central Asia. What factors persuade faculty members to relocate to Kazakhstan for full-time employment? What types of individuals pursue this relocation? Through interviews with international faculty members based in Kazakhstan, the study identifies push factors that trigger departure from one’s previous country of residence: job market, unsatisfactory work conditions, age, and marital status. Alternatively, Kazakhstan attracts scholars via pull factors that include salary, sense of adventure, and the opportunity to build new institutions and programs as well as conduct research. Unlike previous studies that highlight boundaryless mobility and individual agency, this study reveals constraints that mediate international faculty mobility. Furthermore, salary plays a limited role as a pull factor particularly among early career academics who are seeking research opportunities and meaningful contributions in building new academic programs and institutions.     

Faculty in the Hinterlands: Cultural Anticipation and Cultural Reality

Using qualitative inquiry, this paper employs a cultural lens to explore the work life experiences of faculty who work in smaller higher education administration programs in institutions that are not high-level research universities. The research focus included understanding how participants made sense of the institutions in which they worked and the consequences of that for their lives. Implications for the field of higher education administration, faculty work, and graduate socialization are examined. Ultimately, this research suggests that a single model of faculty work life identity drawn using a research institutional prototype does little to support all faculty members, many of whom work in markedly different institutions.     

A Faculty Merit Pay Allocation Model

Merit review processes within academic departments usually consist of two parts: a performance review and evaluation step and a monetary calculation step. Of the two, the performance review step is clearly the more important in achieving fairness and equity. However, the monetary calculation step also plays a key role in maintaining the integrity of the overall process. In an attempt to address the issue of salary compression, the principle used by most departments in allocating merit pay is to award comparable percentage increases in salary to faculty members with similar merit ratings. A merit pay allocation model based on this principle is presented in this paper. The model, a major generalization of an earlier one presented by Camp, Gibbs, and Masters (1988), enables users to calculate merit pay amounts for individual faculty members in a systematic and efficient manner. It is also sufficiently flexible to allow for the incorporation of policy directives often contained in pay packages.