Text 4 Pay Equity

What can be done to close the gap between the earnings of women and men? In the 1980s, pay equity—also known as compar­able worth - has emerged as a controversial solution in the effort to alleviate the second-class status of women within the paid labor force of the United States. Pay equity calls for equal pay for different types of work judged to be comparable through measurement of such factors as employee knowledge, skills, effort, responsibility, and working conditions. Pay equity goes beyond the idea of "equal pay for equal work" by encouraging equal pay for different (but comparable) work.

Theoretically, this doctrine sounds straightforward, but it is not so simple to effect. How exactly does one compare jobs in order to determine standards of equtable pay? Should a zookeeper be paid more than a child care worker? Does our society pay zookeepers more because we value caretaking for animals more than caretaking for children? Or do zookeepers earn more than child care workers because the former tend to be male while the latter are generally female?

Women's work is undervalued and underpaid in American society. From a conflict perspective, women earn low wages because they labor within a tradition that treats them as temporary and supplementary workers, de­values women's work, and views low wages as sufficient for female workers. Efforts to address the issue of wage discrimination have resulted in legislation and increased public awareness, yet women's salaries remain far lower than those of men. The federal Equal Pay Act of 1963, which mandates equal pay for equal work, applies to a relatively small proportion of fe­male workers: those who perform the same job under the same roof as male coworkers. Although these women's wages have increased as a result of the Equal Pay Act, most female workers remain segre­gated in a few occupations in which there are no male workers doing the same jobs with whom these under­paid women might compare themselves.

In some instances, pay inequity is difficult to defend. For example, in Arlington County, Virginia, entry-level gardeners working for the county must have a high school diploma and one year's experience before being hired. They earn $13,927 per year to start. By contrast, the position of entry-level Library Assistant I requires two years of college or two years of library experience, yet the pay is only $12,598 per year. Of the entry-level librarians, 93.4 percent are female, while 87.5 percent of the gardeners are male. Such data are cited by advocates of comparable worth, who insist that we need a more equitable way of eval­uating jobs to determine their value.

Although sex discrimination is one obvious explana­tion for the lack of pay equity, other explanations are possible. Employers commonly cite the influence of labor market supply and demand on wages in various occupations. "You can't measure productivity of jobs or the intrinsic worth of a job," argues Owen Johnson of Continental Bank. "Women are disproportionately found in relatively few jobs in our society, and there is an oversupply of women in certain occupations. This oversupply typically results in low wages." Johnson's comment appears questionable, however, in view of a labor-market phenomenon evident in the nursing pro­fession. Thousands of nurses are leaving the field be­cause of low pay; yet, in response to this shortage, wages have not been increased. Instead, a general reduction in nursing services has followed, and some institutions have hired nurses from outside the United States who will accept lower wages.

Thus far, the courts have generally been reluctant to address the issue of pay equity. However, in late 1983, federal district court judge Jack Tanner held that the state of Washington had violated the 1964 Civil Rights Act through inequitable treatment of its female em­ployees and ordered the state to pay $838 million in raises and retroactive compensation to these women. This ruling was overturned in 1985, as an appeals court determined that an employer can follow prevail­ing market wages in setting salaries—even if these wages underpay women. In 1986, the state decided to avoid further appeals by settling the case for $482 mil­lion in damages. As part of the settlement, the worth of different jobs will now be measured in terms of skill, training, education, responsibility, and other factors.

In 1985, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights took up the issue of comparable worth. By a vote of 5-2, the commissioners held that "comparable worth, as a theory of discrimination, or as a remedy for dis­crimination, is profoundly and irretrievably flawed." The chairman, Clarence M. Pendleton, Jr., inflamed the controversy by stating that comparable worth was the "looniest idea since Looney Tunes." Nevertheless, the majority of the Civil Rights Commission acknowl­edged that sex-based wage discrimination is a serious matter. As a remedy, they called for strict enforcement of the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and federal civil rights acts to prohibit employment discrimination against women.

Many public employers, including the states of New York and New Jersey, have developed voluntary plans to put pay equity policies into effect. In a key develop­ment in 1985, the city of Los Angeles embraced the idea of equal pay for city jobs "of comparable worth," a decision that Mayor Tom Bradley called a "historic step." The city accepted a union contract that gave 10 to 15 percent raises to 3900 clerks and librar­ians—most of them women—to bring their salaries to the level of those of maintenance workers, gardeners, and other city workers in male-dominated classifica­tions. Mayor Bradley commented that, through the city's action, "we will send a message to all cities across this country"

The issue of pay equity is just beginning to gain pub­ attention. In a 2003 national survey, only one-fourth of respondents stated that they had heard a "fair amount" or a "great deal" about pay equity or com­parable worth. Most Americans believe that women and men should be paid equally for jobs of compara­ble worth. At the same time, two-thirds of respondents in the survey agreed that it is too difficult—and there­fore unfair—to compare and evaluate jobs that are quite different (such as secretary and electrician) to see if they deserve similar compensation. In any event, the American people will surely be hearing much more about this controversial concept. According to a survey released by the National Committee on Pay Equity, more than 1500 local governments and school districts in 24 states have taken steps to ad­dress the issue of pay equity.

Text 5