Princeton to dole out nearly $1M in back pay to female professors

Princeton University will pay nearly $1 million in back pay to female professors as part of a discrimination investigation, the Department of Labor said Monday.

The agency said in a statement that Princeton would pay $925,000 in wages and nearly $250,000 in future salary adjustments as a result of a years-long probe by the Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP).

The agency found that between 2012 and 2014 “pay disparities existed for 106 female employees in the full professor position at Princeton University. OFCCP found that Princeton’s actions did not comply with Executive Order 11246, which prohibits federal contractors from discriminating in employment based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin.”

Princeton officials did not admit liability in the investigation as part of the agreement with the Labor Department, according to the statement. The school will also abide by other stipulations of the agreement, including providing training on pay equity to staff.

A spokesperson for the university told CNN in a statement that it “continues to assert that it complied with both the letter and the spirit of the law.”

“The University contested the OFCCP’s allegation because it was based on a flawed statistical model that grouped all full professors together regardless of department and thus bore no resemblance to how the University actually hires, evaluates, and compensates its faculty,” University spokesman Ben Chang said.