The EEOC Litigation Review - 2023 - Report - Page 26
In EEOC v. University Of Miami, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 30027 (S.D. Fla. Feb. 18, 2022),
the Commission filed an action on behalf of university professor Louise DavidsonSchmich, alleging that the defendant failed to pay her less than a similarly-situated male
professor (Dr. Kroger) on the basis of her gender in violation of Title VII of the Civil
Rights Act. The defendant filed a motion in limine requesting that the court preclude
expert evidence from Dr. Erin George, an economist employed by the EEOC. The court
denied the motion. The EEOC tasked Dr. George with calculating back pay for Dr.
Davidson-Schmich with two assumptions: (i) that Dr. Davidson-Schmich should have
earned the same salary as Dr. Kroger when he was hired by the University in 2007; and
(ii) that Dr. Davidson-Schmich would have received the same percentage pay raises
each year that she actually received, which percentage pay raises would be applied to
the salary assumed under (i). Id. at *3. The defendant argued that the two assumptions
were faulty and that Dr. George's back pay calculations of the monies allegedly owed to
Dr. Davidson-Schmich should not be admitted because they were unreliable and
amounted to simple arithmetic that a jury would be able to perform. Id. at *4. The court
explained that the inquiry turned on whether there was a factual basis for the
assumptions underlying Dr. George's opinion that rendered it reliable. The court found
that there was, given testimony regarding other administrators stating that Dr. DavidsonSchmich was underpaid, that market and merit adjustments were not provided to her,
and that two ad hoc university committees that analyzed salary differentials between
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© Duane Morris LLP 2023
The EEOC Litigation Review – 2023
