According to a federal judge’s ruling on Tuesday, the Central Bucks School District complaint accusing them of consistently paying male instructors more than female teachers will be turned into a class action.
The hearing at the U.S. District Court for Eastern Pennsylvania resulted from two prior lawsuits filed by Dawn Marinello and Rebecca Cartee-Haring, two teachers, who alleged that the district routinely disregarded women’s prior work experience when setting starting pay.
Cartee-Haring and Marinello stated earlier this week that during the three-hour hearing, Judge Michael M. Baylson heard from several current and one former teacher in the district before informing the plaintiffs and Central Bucks that he wanted to approve the collective action motion.
The two lead plaintiffs claimed Baylson was insistent in his view that other instructors may choose to join their claims seeking back pay based on their experiences, even though there was not yet an official court ruling.
A motion to turn the case into a class action or collective lawsuit was the petition that was examined this week in Baylson’s Philadelphia courtroom.
A class action would automatically include other female teachers in Central Bucks who would need to opt out of the case, whereas collective action permits other female teachers in Central Bucks to opt into the lawsuit.
“I didn’t expect to walk out of that courtroom hearing any determination because it has been such a long journey for me. Cartee-Haring stated on Thursday that “(Baylson) is committed to moving this thing along.
Pay disparities in Central Bucks:
Teachers in Central Bucks sue over wage equity: A complaint claims that male teachers are compensated better.
Cartee-Haring initially filed her claim in April 2020, and she later joined Marinello’s June 2021 complaint alleging widespread Equal Pay Act breaches in Pennsylvania’s third-largest school district.
In Central Bucks, starting salaries have varied over the past 20 years, according to court filings, but starting salaries have often been based on a person’s education and prior teaching experience.
35 different teachers from the past 20 years, both men and women, are cited as instances in the case.
The lawsuit claims that the nine women, including the two plaintiffs, were routinely paid based on either only a portion or no of their teaching experience, in contrast to the 25 male teachers who were hired with prior experience counted in violation of many policies.
Pennsylvania’s public schools have gender wage inequalities that are evident in the salaries.
The complaint cites numerous instances when men were instructed that they would have to start at the bottom of Central Bucks’ various pay systems while female teachers were given higher starting positions.
In depositions, previous and present district officials stated that “critical need” circumstances, the labour market, and other factors can affect pay, allowing certain teachers to start at higher rates on an individual basis.
This past week, Marinello claimed that Baylson had frequently instructed Central Bucks to “resolve” the case without conducting a complete trial.
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Both parties have until July 20 to submit supplemental papers, after which an official decision is anticipated.
How far back the collective action will go is one of the aspects, according to Marinello, that needs to be worked out.
If the court bases its decision on the timeline stated in the lawsuit, teachers who were hired as far back as 2000 may be able to join the case.
There are tens of thousands of dollars in wage disparities between some of the teachers involved in the lawsuits brought by Marinello and Cartee-Haring.
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The amount the school district could be required to pay in damages if it loses the case is not yet known, but the sum owing to the female instructors could potentially go into the millions of dollars.
