Urbana School District settles age discrimination lawsuit
URBANA, Ill. (WCIA) — The Urbana School District is paying more than $200,000 to settle an age discrimination lawsuit, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced.
Teachers in 2018 sued the school district because the school district capped salary increases for teachers 45 years old or older to 6%. Urbana teachers younger than 45 could get a higher salary increase.
The Age Discrimination in Employment Act prohibits the discrimination of individuals aged 40 and up on the basis of age, including with respect to compensation.
Part of Illinois pension law requires any teacher’s salary increase for more than 6% to include a larger pension contribution into the Teacher Retirement System to cover the increased pension cost. The district tried saving money by keeping the 6% as the maximum for teachers within 10 years of retirement eligibility, and negotiated this provision with the teacher’s union.
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Salary increases were set to continuing education. Charles Koplinski, the teacher named in the lawsuit, told WCIA in 2018 the hours of continuing education he studied should have given him around a salary increase around 12%, if it weren’t for his age.
“This suit should serve as a lesson to Illinois school districts that they cannot try to limit TRS contributions by capping salary increases for older teachers based on their age,” said Gregory Gochanour, the regional attorney for the EEOC’s Chicago District Office. “Federal law prohibits paying teachers over and under the age of 40 differently based on age, just as it prohibits paying women less than men or paying workers differently based on race or national origin.”
Additionally, this rule also dissuaded teachers from coaching school sports or leading extracurriculars.
“In addition to limiting salary increases teachers earned through furthering their education, because of the collective bargaining agreement provision, the district prevented some teachers over age 45 from performing extra paid work for the district, with those opportunities going to teachers younger than 45,” said Amrith Kaur Aakre, the district director of the Chicago District Office. “Limiting work opportunities based on age is illegal.”
The settlement also provides monetary compensation for 40 more teachers besides Koplinski who lost wages between 2015 and 2020 because of the collective bargaining agreement provision.
The EEOC notes the district and the teacher’s union agreed to a collective bargaining agreement that eliminated the compensation for the 2020-21 school year.
WCIA reached out to the Urbana School District for comment, but we haven’t heard back.
This is a developing story that will continue to be updated.
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