From: "lee gilliland" <leeandalexis at hotmail.com>
To: WSFAlist at keithlynch.net
Subject: [WSFA] Re: equal pay
Date: Fri, 05 Apr 2002 00:17:36 -0500
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

----Original Message Follows----
From: ronkean at juno.com
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
To: WSFAlist at keithlynch.net
Subject: [WSFA] Re: equal pay
Date: Thu, 4 Apr 2002 22:41:08 -0500

On Thu, 04 Apr 2002 09:27:43 -0500 "lee gilliland"
<leeandalexis at hotmail.com> writes:

 > Sir, you are begging the question.  If it were done on a
 > case-by-case basis, there would not be any problem - but it is NOT.
The practices  described are  real - otherwise the employment commission
would not be in business.
 >  There is strong historical evidence of deliberate refusal to pay
people
 > for equal work if they are female.  This is fact, not theory.

As I see it, the right of refusal should apply equally to everyone.
Surely prospective employees should have the right to refuse offers, and
thus so should employers.

 > And I can tell that you have no kids to support - for I have been in
 > positions where I had no choice - accept this temporarily with a
 > lower wage,  or let my kid go hungry.  This is not an unusual dilemmas
for people with  families who MUST take what they can get.

Kids or no kids, people often accept jobs which pay less than they could
ideally get, due to temporary financial distress.  That situation, it
seems, could apply as much to men as to women.  But a similar phenomenon
can also apply to employers.  An employer in a bind to get a job done
might have to hire a worker at much higher pay than would otherwise be
required.  Also, employers are not immune from financial distress.  One
big advantage employees have over employers is that is almost impossible
for an employee to lose money on the deal, while employers can, and often
do, end up losing money.

 >  You think those
 > Untouchables in
 > India ENJOY cleaning out latrines with their hands?
 >

Probably not.

 > > ...wages in a free market tend to be set by the
 > > forces of supply and demand, and employers who insist on making
irrational
 > > wage offers are working against their own economic success.
 >

 > Again, sir, you know not whereof you speak.  You don't see it
 > because you
 > have no need to.  Women KNOW this goes on.  How?  We EXPERIENCE it -
 > something that you have never done.
 >

If women being underpaid (because they are women) is a widespread
phenomenon, it suggests that the equal pay law may not be working as
intended.

Ron Kean

Well at least you don't say its our fault.

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