UNC Crafts Strategy for Pay Disparity

In the wake of a recent study revealing a salary disparity between UNC's male and female faculty members, University officials have crafted a strategy to address wage inequities.

Executive Associate Provost Bernadette Gray-Little announced at Friday's Faculty Council meeting that all deans will have to submit a report to the provost by Feb. 1 that will state how their departments will address salary inequities. These plans then will be assessed by a campuswide committee.

Gray-Little said any final wage recommendations should be reported by the end of the semester.

"I feel that the culture of the University is one that is very individually based. ... I feel that this is the right way to go about it," said Provost Robert Shelton of the advantages of having departmental reports as opposed to using a blanket approach.

This strategy was formulated as a response to a recent study that found that, on average, female faculty members in academic affairs at UNC are paid $1,332 less than male faculty members. The biggest disparity was identified in the clinical medicine department, where women make an average of $9,293 less than their male counterparts.

Variables included in the study account for about 80 percent of these salary differences, but about 20 percent of the disparities are unaccounted for.

Although there might be some flaws in the study, such as the lack of a measure of quality of merit, experts who have reviewed it have not found these flaws to be fatal. "We found that the methodology was quite sound," said Abigail Panter, professor of psychology, who was one of the experts that reviewed the report.

Even though some faculty members say the report might be flawed, Faculty Council Chairwoman Sue Estroff said there still is a problem with salary equity at UNC.

"What worries me most is if any member of this faculty, especially any female member of this faculty, feels any trepidation about questioning her compensation," she said. "And I can't tell you how many senior members of this faculty express those very concerns to me. And that needs recognition and redress as much as the salaries do."

Etta Pisano, chairwoman of the Faculty Council's Status of Women Committee, said she has spoken to many female faculty members that have expressed similar concerns.

"People are worried that their individual worth is not as high as it should be ... and unfortunately, they are also feeling that they don't have a good method of resolving it," she said. "There are women who are saying, 'I've known I've been underpaid for a while, and I don't know how to deal with it.'"

The committee will present a plan that will suggest long-term solutions to salary inequities at this week's Faculty Council meeting.

"We do believe that what is in place right now may not be adequate to keep us from having these problems in the long run," Pisano said. "It is not as transparent, perhaps, as it should be."

The University Editor can be reached at udesk@unc.edu.