Biology at Work by Browne Kingsley R

Author:Browne, Kingsley R. [Browne, Kingsley R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-08-17T09:38:18+00:00

layoffs, lawsuits, and difficulty recruiting and retaining employees. The job-evaluation system has resulted in pay compression, leading employees to refuse 11-R2159 4/12/02 10:51 AM Page 161

A Thumb on the Scales

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promotions because the increased responsibility and stress are inadequately compensated. Low morale has been another problem, with those disadvantaged

by the system predictably feeling bitter, and those benefited thinking they should have benefited more. Police officers and firefighters were outraged that secretaries were awarded “working conditions” points comparable to their

own; secretaries, it seems, face “the stress of working between four walls” and of “meeting deadlines.”

Minnesota’s system had numerous undesirable effects. Librarians obtained

raises of 20 to 60 percent, despite the dozens of applicants for every open position at the pre – comparable-worth salary, but nurses fared more poorly. While market forces were driving up the salaries of nurses in the private sector, the comparable-worth system —which was designed to insulate wages from the

forces of supply and demand and in fact did so — left public-sector nurses substantially underpaid in comparison to the market. Although the law permits

special adjustments to deal with shortages, the standards are onerous, and adjustments lead to substantial upward pressures for other comparably rated job categories. Public-sector child-care facilities, faced with increasing pay obligations for child-care workers, raised fees, cut staff, or increased the number of children taken without adding staff. The comparable-worth system declared

computer systems programmers and other technical employees overpaid, al-

though they were underpaid compared to the private sector, making it difficult to attract and retain competent and experienced people. Because of the

significance of the sex composition of jobs under comparable worth, hiring decisions were made with an eye toward the effect on a job’s classification as predominantly male, predominantly female, or balanced, a practice that, although probably illegal, was quite rational on the employers’ part.54

The Effect on the Wage Gap

If gains under a comparable-worth system are a product of struggle rather than principle, there is little reason to think that women will be long-term winners.

We have seen throughout this book that men care more about status and

money than women and that they are more likely to engage in competitive be-

haviors to obtain them. As Rhoads has observed, comparable worth in the public sector has not usually caused men to have their wages cut and has been

disproportionately influenced by feminist activists. In the private sector, Rhoads predicts, men will have much greater influence. Men have more to lose there, because competitive pressures acting on private-sector employers mean that wage setting is more nearly zero-sum, and feminist political advocates will likely not be able to exert as much influence in the private sector as in the public sector.

Even if a coherent system of comparable worth were possible, its effects on closing the wage gap would be limited, and it would likely have other negative effects on women. Comparable worth would have only a modest effect on the

gender gap because women tend not only to work in different occupations than 11-R2159 4/12/02 10:51 AM Page 162

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Public Policy

men but also to work for different employers.

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