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Path: utzoo!watmath!watdcsu!herbie
From: herbie@watdcsu.UUCP (Herb Chong [DCS])
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: Equal pay for comparable worth
Message-ID: <991@watdcsu.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 19-Feb-85 16:08:17 EST
Article-I.D.: watdcsu.991
Posted: Tue Feb 19 16:08:17 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 21-Feb-85 07:38:16 EST
References: <239@mhuxr.UUCP> <18200003@uiucdcsp.UUCP>
Reply-To: herbie@watdcsu.UUCP (Herb Chong [DCS])
Organization: U of Waterloo
Lines: 36
Summary: 

In article <18200003@uiucdcsp.UUCP> ashby@uiucdcsp.UUCP writes:
>Since in the US human beings
>are free to CHOOSE their occupation, regardless of sex,

this is not strictly true.  social pressures have a great deal of
influence on what type, if not exactly which job you chose, and although
living in the US gives you more choice, women are still being channeled
into jobs that traditionally have been, the same as men.

another issue is that of comparable worth.  how can you measure the diverse
things that describe a thing such as a job?  skills alone are not enough.
until a measure of comparable worth that is equally applicable to all jobs
is found and equally acceptable to all parties, you can't even begin to
talk about how much to pay them.

the pay scales that have been arrived at represent many years of compromise
between social values, social needs, and market pressures.  i will be the
last to admit that they are fair, but i will say that it works.  and that's
a big improvement over nothing at all.  

i don't think that it is practical to push for equal pay of comparable
worth because i don't think it is practical to arrive at a way of
measuring comparable worth between different types of jobs.  however,
if two people are doing jobs that are nearly identical in the same
place, then i think they should be paid the same, regardless of sex,
race, or religion.  there are too many other factors to consider
outside of such a limited environment.

Herb Chong...

I'm user-friendly -- I don't byte, I nybble....

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