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From: cgeiger@ut-ngp.UTEXAS (charles s. geiger)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: Comparable Worth -- Myth and Method
Message-ID: <2171@ut-ngp.UTEXAS>
Date: Fri, 26-Jul-85 10:52:48 EDT
Article-I.D.: ut-ngp.2171
Posted: Fri Jul 26 10:52:48 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 28-Jul-85 03:21:43 EDT
References: <137@cosivax.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: UTexas Computation Center, Austin, Texas
Lines: 32

> Now back to garbage and McDonald's.  (Uh, well sure, that's all
> right.)  Let's apply  the  bookie solution.  The method, employers
> adjust the pay for counter worker until the number of applicants is
> *exactly  equal  to*  the  number  of openings and then do the same
> for garbage collecters.  We might even go so far as  to  call these
> balancing salaries `market clearing prices for labor'.  In this way,
> thousands of prospective counter workers and garbage collecters  can
> reach  consensus  on their worth.  Finally, take a ratio between the
> balancing salaries arrived at for the two.  Presto!  a consensus
> measure of comparable worth.

But we all know that this economic theory junk *doesn't* work in
real life!  An example that quickly comes to mind is one that
people are always bringing up on the net--nurses:  there's always a
shortage of nurses, but salaries never go up (in addition,
physicians' attitudes towards nurses never get any better, but
that's another story) to attract more possible nurses.

Of course, I don't hold out for any *real* comparable worth
legislation ever; it would turn the whole society upside down.  For
me, *real* comparable worth would mean that people who worked shit
jobs (like secretary, garbage collector, Jack-in-the-Box worker)
would get paid a premium; they are necessary jobs that others are
unwilling to do.  Professionals would get paid *less*, because they
generally enjoy their work and derive a great deal of satisfaction
from it (who cares that they spent years in school developing
skills?  nobody made them).  Yes, that means you, computer
programmers!

Charles S. Geiger
Department of Economics
University of Texas