In 1963, the Equal Pay Act made it illegal to pay women lower wages than those that men earned for doing the same jobs. Today, almost 50 years later, wage discrimination still exists.

In a case that was just settled this week here in Newark, it was unveiled that female faculty members at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey were being paid less than their male counterparts for years.

The case was filed in 2007 after female faculty members used New Jersey’s open public records law to look up the salaries of their co-workers. When they learned that they were in fact being paid less than male faculty members in similar positions, they complained to the university’s administrators. The administrators reportedly failed to address the wage discrepancy, prompting the women to file a lawsuit.

The case was disputed in court for five years, and now the university has agreed to settle with the 10 professors for $4.65 million.

The women who filed the lawsuit are reportedly top professors in biochemistry, neurology, psychology, radiology and pathology. According to the data compiled by the plaintiffs, female full professors at UMDNJ earned a mean salary of $135,652 while men in the same positions earned $154,768.

Additionally, according to the lawsuit, it took men an average of 15 ½ years to earn the rank of full professor, while it took women an average of 20 ½.

The settlement includes damages for the women who brought the lawsuit. Some women involved in the case will also receive raises.

The professors, however, hope the settlement will also motivate the university to increase the salaries of other female employees.

Source: NJ.com, “Female UMDNJ professors settle with school for $4.65M in sex-discrimination lawsuit,” Kelly Heyboer, Dec. 7, 2012

• Our New Jersey employment law firm handles cases like the one discussed here. To learn more about employment rights, visit our Kingston Employment Discrimination page.