The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has notified the University of Denver that it may sue the educational institution due to a “continuing pattern” of paying women faculty members at the law school less than their male peers. In a letter sent to university officials, the EEOC said that the gender pay gap dated back to at least 1973 and the university was aware of the gap in 2012 “but took no action to ameliorate this disparity, in effect intentionally condoning and formalizing a history of wage disparity based on sex.”
The EEOC initiated an investigation after a complaint was filed by Professor Lucy Marsh. The complaint alleged that a merit-based pay system produced a situation where women professors were paid an average of $16,000 less than male professors. The university conducted a study in 2014 that found that gender did not play a role in the pay disparity but was solely due to a professor’s rank, duties, age, and performance scores. Professor Marsh was paid $109,000 when the median salary for full professors at the law school was $149,000. The university said in a statement the discrepancy was due to “her substandard performance in scholarship, teaching and service.”
Professor Marsh has been on the law school’s faculty since 1976 and was made a full professor in 1982. She is a graduate of Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, and the University of Michigan Law School.