The Battle for Pay Equity Continues

Image via Wikipedia AAUW Legal Advocacy Fund Plaintiff Settles Suit with Columbia

The AAUW Legal Advocacy Fund has a long history of supporting plaintiffs in pay equity battles. This case recently came to a positive conclusion. If you care about ensuring pay equity for women and minorities, join us in our efforts.

The case is Chichilnisky’s second suit against the university for pay discrimination. She has been a tenured, full professor at Columbia since 1979. She studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and at the University of California, Berkeley and has two doctoral degrees, one in mathematics and one in economics.

In 1991, she alleged that the university had violated the Equal Pay Act and Title VII, after she found out that her salary was roughly 30 percent lower than the median salary of her male colleagues in her department. She won a $500,000 settlement in 1995.

In 2000, Chichilnisky went back to court, contending that the university retaliated against her and reneged on the settlement terms. [Read more here...]