Comparable
Worth (also called pay equity) -
A reform effort to pay different job titles the same based
on their value to their employer regardless of the gender
predominance of those working in such titles.
At the heart of comparable worth or pay equity is the fact
that jobs traditionally done by women have been systematically
undervalued in the marketplace. The net result is that jobs
disproportionately held by women are paid less than comparable
jobs with the same levels of skills and responsibilities
but commonly held by males. This bias against women's work
can be demonstrated and subsequently eliminated by assessing
the economic value of different jobs through the use of
gender-neutral job evaluation systems. For example, secretarial
and janitorial jobs can be compared on dimensions such as
the education/training needed, the working conditions, the
responsibility involved and effort required.
Pay
equity job evaluation studies seek to differentiate legitimate
wage differences from those that are solely a function of
the sex of the typical job incumbent. Sometimes salary inequities
are so blatant that advocates can simply offer them as evidence
without providing job evaluation measures. For instance,
a substantial proportion of school districts in the U.S.
pay secretaries and teaching assistants considerably less
than the cleaners. In Denver, nurses were found to make
less than gardeners. In New York State, school nurses in
the West Islip school district start at $27,000, groundsmen
at $29,000. In most cases, however, the process establishing
the comparable value of dissimilar job titles from diverse
occupational groups involves a complex process of job evaluation.
Job
evaluation systems establish most salaries
Most
of us have very little understanding of how the salary we
earn is established. We work in jobs that had fixed salaries
assigned to them before we took them and, with the exception
of longevity increments, will continue at the same relative
salary for years. Employees and employers alike expect salaries
to logically relate to job content including the level of
skill, the length of training and the degree of responsibility.
Employers generally have systematic, ostensibly objective,
institutionalized processes in place to relate the skills
and responsibilities to salaries. The pay equity reform
is directed at eliminating gender bias from the processes
that link salaries to job content.
The
primary tool used by most employers to compare jobs and
establish equitable salaries is the job evaluation system.
Pay equity research utilizes the same tool, the job evaluation
system, to compare traditionally male and female jobs relative
to their skills and responsibilities. To eliminate the gender
bias in the salary setting process, requires assuring that
the job evaluation system is gender neutral and does not
systematically ignore or undervalue the work done by those
in tradition female jobs.
