The following excerpt is from Spaulding v. University of Washington, 740 F.2d 686 (9th Cir. 1984):
In attempting to meet its burden, the nursing faculty contends that nursing faculty members perform substantially equal work to that performed by specified comparator faculty members because both jobs require preparation and teaching of courses, research and publication, committee work, advising of students, and community service. The nursing faculty selected the departments relied upon for comparators because they are professional schools "with a degree mix similar to the school of nursing with practice related activities, where students are frequently put into clinical settings under faculty supervision." The nursing faculty introduced statistics attempting to compare 66 individual faculty members from the selected comparator departments with members of the nursing faculty based on degrees held, experience, and merit. In addition, the nursing faculty points to evidence describing various faculty positions and showing that its members taught courses in comparator departments, engaged in research on interdisciplinary issues, and worked on committees with comparator faculty members. Despite the facial similarity in the nature of the faculty positions relied upon by the nursing faculty, the special master concluded that the nursing faculty had not shown substantial equality. The district judge adopted that finding. We conclude that the district judge's finding on substantial equality is not clearly erroneous. See generally Horner v. Mary Institute, 613 F.2d at 714 (affirming finding that jobs of two physical education teachers were not substantially equal even though "superficially identical in that both involve teaching of physical education").
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