Causes: Examining Comparable Worth

Examining Comparable Worth

Should the Government try to set similar pay scales for jobs that, while dissimilar, ostensibly require equivalent skill, responsibility and effort? Next week the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is expected to approve a draft report that calls the concept, known as comparable worth, "profoundly and irretrievably flawed."

Federal law states clearly that workers in the same job cannot be paid differently because of their sex or race. Comparable worth would take these guarantees of equal pay for equal work a step further: workers in such traditionally male jobs as trucker and accountant, for example, would no longer make 30% to...

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!