Penn State to pay $700K in gender discrimination case

Penn State University will pay $703,742 in back wages and interest to settle a U.S. Department of Labor case alleging gender pay discrimination against female staff and faculty, the parties announced.

The amount will be shared among the women impacted. Penn State said the inequities found by the department were unintentional.

The conciliation agreement reached stems from a routine audit that began in 2021 and focused on employees at University Park.

At least since July 1, 2020, Penn State allegedly paid 65 women employees less than men holding similar positions in facilities operations and maintenance, extension education and senior administration jobs, officials said.

Others receiving inequitable pay included some female faculty in research professor roles within the College of Engineering and the Applied Research Laboratory, and some female faculty in teaching professor roles at the College of Agricultural Sciences and the Bellisario College of Communications, the Labor Department said.

“Employers that hold federal contracts must provide all employees with equal employment opportunities and audit their employment processes to make certain no barriers to equal employment exist,” said Samuel B. Maiden, Mid-Atlantic regional director of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs in Philadelphia.

Along with providing back wages, the university agreed to make efforts to ensure its compensation practices and policies are free from discrimination.

Penn State said the pay discrepancies were unintentional. The investigation lasting several years identified the 65 individuals from 13,811 female employees on campus that the agency believed might have been underpaid relative to men.

“While the number of affected employees was small relative to the overall campus population, the University takes such matters seriously and worked diligently with the government to reach a resolution that fairly compensated the affected women,” Suzanne Adair, Penn State associate vice president for equal opportunity and access, said in a statement. “We appreciate the government’s efforts and are pleased that the audit identified the pay anomalies so that corrective action could be taken.”

The university’s actions violated Executive Order 11246, which prohibits federal contractors from discriminating in employment based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or national origin.

In 2024, Penn State received more than $178 million in payments from federal contracts with agencies including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, NASA, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the departments of Defense and Agriculture, Labor Department officials said.