Alexandra Tashman: Even with Merit Equity Review, UC must make a greater effort to limit gender pay gap

Despite national legislative efforts, women throughout the United States are still making less than men across the board.

The University of California is no exception ““ gender-driven pay disparities are in full evidence at multiple levels of faculty rank.

While vastly better than the national average, female full professors across the UC system make consistently less than their male counterparts.

Nationwide, women make 77 cents for every male dollar, and black and Latino women make 64 and 56 cents respectively, according to the 2010 census.

Annually, UCLA’s female professors make on average $17,000 less on than male professors ““ about 90 cents to every male dollar ““ according to data from the American Association of University Professors analyzed by the Chronicle of Higher Education.

The good news is that the UC does have programs in place to help combat pay inequalities.

“UCLA is committed to providing equal pay to faculty members regardless of gender,” said University Spokesman Phil Hampton in a statement.

Hampton said UCLA conducts a Merit Equity Review if faculty members believe they are not receiving appropriate compensation based on their achievement or in comparison to peers of their rank.

That being said, the merit equity program is reactive, not proactive, and a 10 percent gulf between male and female professorial salaries is hardly negligible.

Furthermore, this system identifies the problem after it has already occurred and does not help root out the institutional disparities driving this trend.

With the pay gap hovering at 10 percent for UCLA, and reaching nearly 13 percent at UC San Diego, a more aggressive stance needs to be adopted in order for the UC to guarantee equality.

University officials were not up-to-date on the data, despite a public letter from the chair of the UCLA Academic Senate in December 2011 that brought up similar concerns.

Former chair of the Academic Senate, Andrew Leuchter wrote to Robert Anderson, chair of the Academic Council, that in the wake of a report entitled “Analysis of UC Pay Equity by Sex, and Among Men, Ethnicity, 2009-10,” multiple committees wanted to see more data on pay distribution within the UC, particularly related to inequalities for faculty women of color versus male faculty at the University.

Programs such as the Merit Equity Review need to be further publicized, and perhaps the UC could implement programs that do more than rely on self-reporting.

The pay gap must be monitored, whether by additional studies or programs, to ensure that gap nears a close every year until it disappears from the system altogether.

Email Tashman at [email protected] . Send general comments to [email protected] or tweet us @DBOpinion .