Editor’s note: The Daily Illini is following up its Salary Guide released March 9 with a two-day series looking at the effects of race and gender on faculty salaries. Yesterday’s story discussed the topic of race and how the University is beginning to study its effects with a statistical salary analysis. Today’s story covers the topic of gender and what can be done to correct salary inequalities during the current budget crisis.

When the faculty salary equity regression study is complete in late May, the University will have updated data about whether gender, race or other factors are affecting pay rates.

But even armed with up-to-date data, University administrators do not a have a salary program, or a pot of money set aside for raisesto correct any inequalities that are found, said Barbara Wilson, vice provost for academic affairs.

“Obviously, it’s easier to make adjustments when you have a salary program because you have money dedicated to these kinds of issues,” Wilson said. “We don’t have that now.”

In a state of uncertainty about when appropriations from the Illinois government will come through, Wilson said the provost’s office does not know when it will have the money to reinstate the salary program.

Still, if gendered or racial inequalities in salaries are found, the University is required under legislation, such as the Equal Pay Act of 1963, to correct the problems, said Menah Pratt-Clarke, assistant provost and associate director of the Office of Equal Opportunity and Access.

“Departments will have to find their own resources. That’s certainly not an optimistic outlook for being able to address salary issues,” said Carol Livingstone, associate provost and director of the Division of Management Information, the unit that is conducting the salary equity study.

Stories behind the numbers

Studies of salaries broken down into the faculty ranks of professor, associate professor and assistant professor have found year after year that women are paid less than men on average at each level.

According to the American Association of University Professors’ 2009-10 Faculty Salary Survey, this year is no different. Men average $14,500 more per year than women at the professor level, $5,000 more at the associate professor level and $7,400 more at the assistant professor level.

But averages across an entire rank are misleading, Livingstone said, because they ignore factors including differences in base salaries in different departments.

Although the faculty salary equity regression study being conducted will account for salary differences caused by a faculty member’s department, race, gender, promotion dates and time since earning his or her highest degree, its data does not explain all salary differences, Wilson said.

“Even with a data set or a study like this, the numbers don’t tell the whole story,” Wilson said. “Part of the challenge is that you may look at what looks to be inequities, but there’s a story behind them. And sometimes the story is an appropriate one, and sometimes it’s not. So what we’re interested in doing is really figuring out when we have problems that need to be fixed versus when we have differences that make sense in terms of our merit system.”

Unfair salary discrepancies result in cases when women earn less because of gendered stereotypes, such as the assumption they will spend too much time caring for their families, said Megan McLaughlin, associate professor of history, gender and women’s studies and religion.

“The same accomplishment can be viewed quite differently based on whether the person who did it is seen as black or white, male or female,” McLaughlin said.

Women also often do work invisible to the salary system, including mentoring students, said Sarah Projansky, associate professor of gender and women’s studies and media/cinema studies. Projansky said she believes the University can improve pay equity by finding a way to compensate women for this type of work.

Challenges exist beyond study

While faculty said updated information from the salary equity study will be a good first step in addressing problems, the real challenge will come after the study is completed.

Studying salary discrepancies will make administrators aware of them, McLaughlin said, but it will not immediately stop people in positions of power from undervaluing the work of some and overvaluing the work of others.

But even without funding set aside to address any unequal salaries that may exist, salary data from the study can help prioritize whose cases need attention, Livingstone said.

“Pointing them out to departments does make it possible that maybe these people will be first in line when money actually does start flowing again,” she said.

If unfair salary discrepancies are found, Projansky said the University needs a plan to stop similar problems from cropping up again in the future.

“You have to think about what caused the problem and can we change those causes,” Projansky said. “You can’t just put a Band-Aid on it.”