The following letter was sent on February 11 to Principal Fortier.
Dr. Suzanne Fortier,
On February 11th 2013 your Human Resources department sent an e-mail entitled “Pay equity follow-up message”. The e-mail indicated that employee groups were satisfied with the agreement reached between the pay equity commission and McGill. However, AMURE and other groups have concerns with the implementation of that agreement, and with that lack of transparency about how the pay equity agreement was implemented.
We wish to clarify our concerns regarding the pay equity adjustments.
First, in specific regards to research assistants, although pay equity seeks to bridge the salary gap between male and female dominated job classes, McGill has decided to only adjust the salaries of research assistants hired before 2005. Employees hired after 2005 have received the salaries in the same range as employees hired before 2005. Employees in other job classes at McGill received the same adjustement no matter when the employee was hired at McGill. We do not understand why research assistants were treated differently. It is difficult to understand how McGill’s implementation of the pay equity agreement bridges the salary divide between research assistants and male dominated positions when less than one third of current research assistants are receiving any pay equity adjustment.
Secondly, as described in McGill’s pay equity FAQ, pay equity involves two steps. The first is determining male dominated job classes (jobs with more than 60% men), and fitting a linear regression through the maximum salary of these male job classes. Next, if the maximum salary of a predominantly female job class is below this line, the salaries of employees within that class are proportionally increased so that the new maxim salary is raised to the regression line. In several communications with your human resources staff over the course of the last year, I asked for information as to how the adjustments were calculated and to clarify why research assistants did not receive a 2005 maintenance adjustment. We call on McGill to be fully transparent and to release the following information for the 2001 and 2005 pay equity adjustments:
- For each job class, the points assigned to the job, the gender predominance (either male or female dominated or mixed), and original salary maximum.
- The equation of the regression line used in pay equity.
- For each job class, the new salary maximum and the associated percentage increase.
- To demonstrate that all jobs at McGill were treated equally and with the same regression line.
In response to our questions and concerns to your human resources department last week, the e-mail sent on February 11th threatened that “changes may be necessary to the adjustments received, either up or down”. We are deeply upset that AMURE’s and other groups concerns regarding the lack of transparency in the way McGill has implemented pay equity has resulted in McGill threatening to take away adjustments that employees have waited 13 years to receive. We ask that you openly commit McGill not to retract any pay equity adjustments that employees have all ready received.
We also ask that McGill reaffirm its commitment to pay equity at McGill by maintaining an open, transparent pay equity program by addressing AMURE’s and other groups concerns in a timely manner. Pay equity at McGill is already 13 years late, please act now before it’s 14.
Thank you,
Sean Cory