wage discrimination against women
It appears that the Republicans opposed the bill because it might be a burden on small businesses. A burden because they would have to pay a woman the same thing as a man? Is it better for the Republicans if they just continue to squash bills that perhaps could move the country forward? Are they interested in making sure that views are skewed on each topic so that people can remain uneducated about the decisions that make? Is that what keeps them in power or do they really care about equal rights for all?
Bottom line, if two people of different genders are doing the exact same job, they should get compensated the same. If one person, perhaps a woman, who has decided to leave the work force for 10 years and returns to a job where she is responsible for the exact same thing as her male counterpart who never left the workplace for any time, she should still get paid the same amount. Equal responsibility equals equal pay.
Now if you look at teachers, teachers get paid at different levels because of their education and experience. If you get two degrees vs one then you get paid at a higher level vs your counterpart. It is probably presumed that the education you received gives you the ability to teach at a higher level. I don't know if that is true or not but I have seen in this circumstance that degrees and experience can change the game in teacher compensation.
Yet, in regards to two people who are doing the exact same job, at the same level, with the same amount of responsiblity…shouldn't it be illegal to pay them each a different amount? My guess is at one point, this will go all the way to the Supreme Court and these days who knows which way they will judge but there are a variety of laws in place already that supposedly supports equal pay already.
Time will tell.
Comments (Archived):
It’s amazing how discriminatory we are.Never ceases to amaze me.Yes, we are civilized thanks to rising standard.. perhaps the west/developed world sees the best of this.But, it’s a thin veil.
Ain’t it the truth. It’s despicable that we even have to discuss this.
It sure as hell is
We need to be discriminatory, just not based on gender. Ability is fine though 🙂
Fair enough
“If one person… who has decided to leave the work force for 10 years and returns to a job where she is responsible for the exact same thing as her male counterpart who never left the workplace for any time, she should still get paid the same amount.””Now if you look at teachers, teachers get paid at different levels because of their education and *experience*”Can you clarify your position… should one teacher with 10 more years of experience make more than the other? From your first quote it seems like your answer to that question is highly dependent on the genders of the teachers involved…? A man with 10 more years of experience should make the same as a woman in the same position….What about a woman with 10 more years of experience than another woman?
I thought someone would wonder about this.Teachers are IMHO teaching at a much higher level with that kind of experience and education.I am not so sure that doing a job, be it manual labor or managing 20 people, regardless of past experience should be paid differently. woman to woman or woman to man.
I agree that, all things being equal, gender/sexual preference/age/race should never be a factor in determining pay. But all things are never equal, especially in knowledge driven jobs. To use the teacher example, although it applies to most professions: a teacher with 10 extra years of experience is assumed to be worth more than the teacher with less time on that specific job…but the reality is: not always. The younger teacher (or one back from a break and doesn’t have the seniority) may have skills that deserve more pay. Or the more experienced teacher could actually be better at the job by virtue of the experience. The point is there are many variables and they keep on changing. Generalizations about pay mask the incredible complexity underneath.
Yet, in regards to two people who are doing the exact same job, at the same level, with the same amount of responsiblity…shouldn’t it be illegal to pay them each a different amount?No.But it should certainly be illegal to pay them a different amount solely because of their gender, race, sexual orientation etc.This seemed like a fairly benign piece of legislation — that it didn’t pass reflects the woeful state of partisan politics.
I could not agree more. All I can say is that everyone needs to vote.
All things being equal, and men / women have equal pay “opportunities” (pay not equal but not a result of gender), I think we have to go back and look at the root of the problem, which is: 1) more men than women at the decision-making levels 2) women negotiating skills, particularly while playing a game dominated by men. I agree that this is crazy that this is even an issue! In time, it has to change, and I believe it will.
I am beside myself on this one.This includes to my (Republican) CongressWOMAN, whose spokesman wrote on Facebook that they should “throw acid of the faces of female Senators” who support Lilly Ledbetter. WTF? My Congresswoman didn’t even demand his resignation. Eventually, with enough uproar, he did resigned. This was also after their office deleted a ton of comments on their FB page. Free speech, anyone?Grrr. I’ve gotta get out of this conversation stat because it makes me too angry and I have real work to do trying damn hard to create jobs where we pay people what they’re worth. Grrr.
you still think politicians think as the same way and do you still have faith on them. Whatever you want you will have to do it yourself. It is sure this way country is not going to progress but bigger issue is why woman face such partiality when they do equal work. Now there is not a single profession which is just for man and woman can’t do it, all over the world.
GothamGal – My first contribution here (I think).I have a UK and European bias to my thinking. In much of Europe you simply don’t know what a job will pay (it is negotiated at interview, not advertised). This is weird from a UK perspective. When you have that job you also do not know what your peers are paid. This sounds crazy.. but there is a way that it can work,If I run a company and find my managers are rewarding the staff that report to them on anything other than performance (or effort and attitude – these are easily overlooked), they will not last.No second chances.If your husband is considering funding a company and he finds this in their “ethic”, he should pull the rug from under their feet and tell his network why! No second chances.If a politician is caught somehow abusing his position – he should be fired and never re-elected.No second chances.The answer should be simple – our society should not reward protectionist and nepotistic greed. The grandchildren of once famous actors should not get roles because of their ancestry (think of some famous cases). These are abuses of power and resource and ultimately public trust. The sooner we believe we are accountable for our actions, the sooner we become accountable for our actions. A clean sweep is possible.Oh, and why not call out the name of some of the politicians that put a party line before decency. Maybe the parties can also learn something about the people. They call it democracy, they had it in Greece once i believe.
My time as an activist taught me this: nothing in DC is what it appears to be (except for appearing to be awful, of course).The story of the failed effort to pass the Equal Rights Amendment is a rarely told but very instructive part of our history. Activists point to it all the time for lessons learned.
i figured that out years ago when I did some serious fund raising for the Democrats. Not pretty.