Hunter
07/09/24
The Iowa State Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal of a lower court’s ruling that limited a retired Iowa State University professor’s ability to recover lost wages.
The case involves Agronomy professor Silvia Cianzio, who sued ISU, the Board of Regents and the State of Iowa for wage and gender discrimination. At issue is the period of time in which she is asking to be compensated for the wage gap.
Cianzio began her career at ISU in 1970 as a master’s student. In 2020 she was asked to chair the Department of Agronomy’s diversity, equity and inclusion committee. In a survey she conducted, she found male professors were paid more than female professors.
Cianzio was he only woman among six full professors specialized in plant breeding. Despite performance equal to or exceeding her male counterparts, she was the lowest paid, earning between $11,000 and $46,000 less than the men. She filed suit in January 2022, asking for up to three times the wage gap paid to comparable employees during her employment, court costs and attorney’s fees. ISU, the Regents and the State asked the court to consider the statute of limitations and restrict the time frame.
According to the ruling against the professor by Polk County District Judge Heather Lauber last August, the court agreed with the defendants that allowing any plaintiff to recover for a relatively unlimited time frame would produce, quote, “ impractical or absurd results.”
Cianzio appealed, and the State Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case.