(Source: MIRS.news, Published 11/26/2024) A sociology professor is the lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit filed Tuesday against the University of Michigan, claiming that tenured professors have been shorted pay because of the university's policy for adding raises to salaries.  

The lawsuit, which was announced by Southfield-based Sommers Schwartz PC, details how salary payments are made over a 12-month period from July 1 through June 30 of the following calendar year, making up U of M's fiscal year. However, the lawsuit filed in the Court of Claims argues that the payment of raises was initiated on Sept. 1, after the fiscal year began, resulting in salary increases not being properly reflected in July and August paychecks.  

"The bottom line: Faculty appointed on a University Year basis have been systematically underpaid each year they received a salary increase by the amount equal to the raise of their base pay multiplied by two twelfth," the lawsuit – Gocek v. Board of Regents of the University of Michigan – reads.  

An estimated 3,600 tenured professors across the university's Ann Arbor, Dearborn and Flint are addressed in the lawsuit, which claims that they're missing nearly 17 percent of their raises.  

Although the press release by Sommers Schwartz reports that the university agreed to change its withholding of raised payments starting in July 2025, the firm argues there's "no intention of providing the lost raise income retroactively."  

"The sum of nonpayment is estimated in excess of $2.5 million collectively per year, and we are demanding repayment on behalf of our clients to the maximum amount of retroactivity allowed by law," said Matthew Turner, lead attorney on the case.  

Kay Jarvis, U of M's director of public affairs, informed MIRS around 4:47 p.m. Tuesday that the university has not been served with the lawsuit and has not had an opportunity to review it.  

The lead plaintiff is Fatma Muge Gocek, a sociology professor who's been employed by the university since 1988.