Date: Sun, 07 Apr 2002 13:16:45 -0400
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>, WSFAlist at keithlynch.net
From: Samuel Lubell <lubell at cais.com>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: equal pay
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

At 11:41 PM 4/3/02 -0500, ronkean at juno.com wrote:
>
>On Wed, 03 Apr 2002 12:21:42 -0500 Kit Mason <kit at hers.com> writes:
>> Ron,
>>
>> You're unnecessarily complicating the issue.  The question isn't
>> whether two McDonald's employees (for example) who work in separate
>cities
>> should be paid the same, but why two people who do exactly the same
>> job in the same building but have different genders should not be paid
>> the same wages.
>
>It would arguably be irrational to pay people unequally based purely on
>gender, if all else is equal, and if gender were not itself relevant to
>the job.  But if productivity differs from worker to worker, that could
>be a rational basis for unequal pay for the same job.  Trying to ban
>irrational behavior begs the moral question of whether people have the
>right to be a bit irrational with their own resources, and raises the
>practical objection that opinions and perceptions about what is rational
>and fair may honestly differ.

You are making the assumption that employers are rational.  But for years
they actively discriminated against certain groups (and some still do).
Think of all the restaurants that refused to serve Blacks in the pre 1960s
South or the businesses that had "No Irish Need Apply" signs or the country
clubs that refused to let Jews in.

>I don't see the U.S. as being chock full of employers scheming to pay
>women workers less than the men, but such an employer would be making a
>bad business decision, in part because it would bad for morale.  As I
>understand economics, 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.

Maybe so, but lots of businesses go under.  And businesses naturally want
to pay their workers as little as possible.  If they can get away with
hiring women for less, they will do it.