Michigan Medicine's campus in Ann Arbor.
Michigan Medicine and some of its top executives face a discrimination lawsuit over an alleged gender wage gap between physician assistants.
The class action suit, filed Tuesday in Washtenaw County Court, alleges female physician assistants at the health system are paid an average of $9,000 less each year than their male counterparts.
The suit was brought by Christine Oldenburg-McGee — a current PA in the health system and former president of the United Physician Assistants of Michigan Medicine union — on behalf of more than 300 female PAs, according to the suit.
The lawsuit alleges the wage gap is in violation of the Elliot-Larsen Civil Rights Act, a state law that prohibits discrimination based on a variety of factors, including gender, age, race or religion.
Named as defendants in the suit are Michigan Medicine; University of Michigan; UM’s Board of Regents; UM Medical School; Dr. David Miller, the incoming Michigan Medicine CEO and current president of UM Health; Jovita Thomas-Williams, chief human resources officer at Michigan Medicine; and Hakim Berry, director of labor relations at Michigan Medicine.
Michigan Medicine and its executives declined to comment on the ongoing litigation.
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The suit alleges the violation was willful and neglectful because Oldenburg-McGee had shared details of the gender wage gap for PAs to all of the defendants.
“The UM defendants’ discrimination has caused loss of not only salary, but associated benefits, including retirement benefits, as those benefits are based in part on salary deferral,” the complaint reads. “Despite UM defendants’ knowledge of the gender wage gap, and despite expressions of intentions to address the disparity, the UM defendants have for years failed and refused to correct for it.”
According to public records, Oldenburg-McGee is paid roughly $144,000 as a PA in the surgical specialty unit. The highest PA salary in the surgical specialty department at Michigan Medicine is $169,270, and is held by a female.
The highest paid PA at Michigan Medicine, a male in the cardiovascular surgery unit, is paid $219,998, according to public records. The highest paid female PA works in emergency medicine and earns $181,790.
It is unclear the seniority gap or qualification gap between these employees.
The suit is the latest labor battle at Michigan Medicine.
The system was entangled with three different unions last fall, including Oldenburg-McGee’s UPAMM, as the organized healthcare workers sought to secure better compensation, benefits and overtime arrangements.
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There were several pickets from the 4,600-member United Michigan Medicine Allied Professionals union and the 2,600-member SEIU Health Care Michigan union.
Michigan Medicine reached a deal with both unions as well as ratifying a three-year contract with UPAMM in February.
The lawsuit alleges over a three-year period prior to the filing of the suit. It alleges UPAMM’s previous contract, in 2021, entrenched the pay gap. It’s unclear whether the new contract addressed the alleged gap.
The lawsuit comes two weeks after Equal Pay Day, an annual public awareness event that occurred on March 25.
The alleged gender pay disparity at Michigan Medicine differs from UM itself, according to a study published in February.
The study, commissioned by Provost Laurie McCauley in 2024, found no statistically significant gap in pay between male and female faculty members. The study analyzed nearly 2,200 tenured and tenure-track faculty for the study and found a 12.3% gender pay gap, but when controlled for experience and other factors it dropped to less than 1%.
This story first appeared in Crain's Detroit Business.
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