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PLANNING THE ANALYSIS

If the goal of a study is to seek a monetary remedy for found pay inequity, then the analysis will require a regression analysis of individual salary and employment data. If this data is not made available to the association or a joint Committee, one approach may be to plan the analysis in phases. The first phase can be exploratory, employing analytical methods that help the committee identify areas where there are potential pay or employment inequities.

In planning, the committee should carefully consider the scope of the analysis. One possible danger is setting too narrow of a scope for the analysis and coming out of the analysis with very few useful results. For example, this situation may arise if it is agreed to investigate only pay inequity and they have 1) a small faculty, and/or 2) a relatively small overall pay gap. In this case, there is greater likelihood that the pay discrimination found may be statistically insignificant.8 The statistical insignificance may have implications on the validity of the findings in a bargaining or arbitration context.


8 If the committee chooses to do a regression analysis to or a given standard deviation and regression coefficient, statistical power increases with sample size.