Gender Equity Initiative (GEI)

Institutions have a responsibility to ensure that all employees receive equitable compensation regardless of gender or race. The Gender Equity Initiative was commissioned in April 2008 by Chancellor Michael F. Collins and Dean Terence Flotte after former Lt. Governor Evelyn Murphy, during a presentation on campus, challenged employers to eliminate potential gender wage discrimination. Mr. John O’Brien, President and CEO, UMass Memorial Health Care and Dr. Walter Ettinger, President, UMass Memorial Medical Center, Associate Vice Provost for Clinical and Population Health Research and Professor of Medicine asked to include the clinical system physicians in the analysis of faculty compensation equity. The purpose of the study was to determine if compensation inequities were present for faculty with respect to gender and/or race.

Outcomes

The extensive analyses revealed no evidence of systemic or system-wide salary inequities based on either gender or race. In some groups there were substantive differences that led to further exploration and resulted in a small number of corrective salary adjustments.

Download a summary: Gender Equity Initiative (pdf)