Four professors at Northern Michigan University in Marquette have filed a lawsuit alleging the university pays them less than their male coworkers.
Brian Farrar, an employment lawyer at Sterling Attorneys at Law, is representing them. He says female business professors at NMU are paid 10-40 percent less than their male counterparts. Farrar says they are also given less employment benefits and are being denied consideration for tenure positions.
“We allege that this is a pattern that’s been going on for quite some time at the university,” Farrar says.
Farrar says the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division is may bring charges against the university.
NMU officials declined to comment, but in a statement they say faculty salaries are dependent on a number of factors and are negotiated by the faculty union.