PORTLAND, Oregon--Six female members at various Oregon State Colleges have won the first sex discrimination case in Oregon against an educational institution based on unfair salary payment, said Jim D. Meinert, dean of Students of Western Oregon State College yesterday.
Judge Helen Frye of the district court in Portland, last month said the women had received lower starting salaries "because they are women," according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.
The class action suit was first filed by Wilma Hein, associate professor of Health and Physical Education at Western Oregon State College, in 1979 under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Judge Frye awarded the six plaintiffs back pay and benefits to 1976. Hein, the principal plaintiff in the case, said awards would amount to "about $100,000 for the six of us." Although Meinert was not aware of the specific awards, he said the college would appeal the case "if the penalty were terribly severe."
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