Constant Opinions

Hillary Clinton hopes to make it so. She is bringing back her Paycheck Fairness Act which is an attempt to require that men and women be paid equally for equal work.

I read about this over on Bring It On!, and the debate there is quite interesting.  Once other factors are accounted for, it can be shown that women earn 80% of what men do, on average.

To me, the habit of many employers to require that employees not discuss their pay has always been an irritant. Frankly I consider it none of an employer’s business if employees choose to discuss what they’re earning with one another. It’s also every employee’s right to not discuss what they earn if they don’t want to. Money is a very personal topic, and not everyone wants to discuss it. But if employees do, it should be their decision and not something an employer can discipline for.

I do think a part of the disparity can be attributed to men being more prone to asking for raises than women. That’s on average, of course, as some women have learned to ask for what they are worth. I have an older sister who I doubt is afraid to ask for the money she deserves. She’s a highly-paid programmer and I know she earns a good living. No idea how her pay compares to male programmers, but she does well.

The trick with this kind of thing is balancing actual merit raises with equal pay. I would expect this kind of thing to mean employers would have to more carefully justify merit raises. It’s not an easy thing to prove that one employee is earning more because they do just that little bit extra.

Yes, women do more often take time off to have families. But as I understand it the study accounted for that and still found that huge discrepancy. And men take time off too. Two of my sisters have their husbands at home raising the kids while they go out to work.

And don’t get me started on maternity leave, which is unpaid and all too many women do lose their jobs due to pregnancy. It doesn’t happen every time… going back to my sister, she was hired when pregnant, and her job was held for her. She was fortunate. I know many other women who have been fired on a pretext once pregnant, too often for it to be coincedence in my opinion.

I don’t know how well this can be legislated, in all honesty. I can’t help but feel that if more women were comfortable negotiating for better pay to start off with, as well as better raises, they might close that gap more effectively. Probably won’t 100% close the gap as gender bias definitely still exists, but it would be a start. Call it personal responsibility.

<>But at the same time, if a business is clearly and deliberately paying women less, there is a problem. I always find myself understanding at least two sides to this kind of thing and never sure which is the greater problem. The paperwork for proving that equally qualified men and women are started out with equal pay pay shouldn’t be cumbersome and would be a nice start.

I don’t know how equal pay will become a reality. I would certainly like to see it, of course. Too many women scrape by because they just aren’t getting paid what they deserve, which is ridiculous in this day and age.

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Filed under: Business, Controversial, Musings, Politics