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From: oaf@mit-vax.UUCP (Oded Feingold)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: Equal pay for comparable worth
Message-ID: <4732@mit-vax.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 15-Feb-85 08:15:15 EST
Article-I.D.: mit-vax.4732
Posted: Fri Feb 15 08:15:15 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 18-Feb-85 06:18:55 EST
References: <239@mhuxr.UUCP> <648@unmvax.UUCP> <2306@randvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: oaf@mit-vax.UUCP (Oded Feingold)
Organization: MIT, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 42
Keywords: injustice multipliers gold bricks pain fatigue wiser
Summary: Hey, let's not forget basic economics

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In article <2306@randvax.UUCP> edhall@randvax.UUCP (Ed Hall) writes:
    	Women's wages are lower because of social institutions, not because
    	of supply and demand.  How else do you explain the fact that a
    	female-dominated occupation such as nursing, ...  is paid so much
    	less than a male-dominated occupation such as truck-driving?

Without contesting the injustice of such a system, consider economic
multipliers.  A nurse can make incremental improvements in a small number
of patients' lives, and under less favorable conditions may simply
maintain the status quo.  But the truck-driver determines whether the
factories get their materials and keep on producing.  Certainly a more
direct payoff.

Also, nurses usually don't work for 72 hours at a stretch, nor sleep in
their rigs with pistols in hand, waiting for someone to steal the truck.
Nor does a nurse's 2-second lapse of attention wipe out a busload of
schoolchildren.

So I don't think that training or skill are or should be the sole
determinants of wages.  Things like fear, pain, fatigue, physical effort,
boredom, smokies, blowouts, weather, traffic yams, and polluted workplaces
should and do have a place in setting those scales, along with economic
incentives.  I'll leave it to wiser heads to set the specific values and
tell us what truck drivers SHOULD make as compared to nurses.  Though I
don't claim the labor market is perfect, I suspect it is more robust than
Mr. Hall indicated in his message.

Also, the labor theory of value has to be extended to include what the
economy wants in the first place.  An unskilled person who ****s gold
bricks pays the system better than a skilled one who does not, and will
command higher wages.  Sad but true.  (Now you know my opinion of
athletes' and entertainers' salaries.  And I won't even mention the 
computer pros. (You expected a smiley face??))

Oded Feingold
	MIT AI Lab
	545 Tech Square
	Cambridge, Mass. 02139
		617-253-8598