That's a meaningless phrase. What constitutes equal work? And what if the person doesn't want/need equal pay? A secondary earner in a 2 income family will not need and would be satisfied at a lower pay rate than a main earner. So why would it make sense to pay a person willing to take less "equal pay"?
If a particular job in your company gets around $40,000/year, and you have an applicant who asks for $30,000, it would be stupid to offer them more. If s/he is happy with $30k, give him/her $30k. That is, by definition, fair, since it's what is asked for. To pay more on some vague principle of abstract fairness is ridiculous and patronizing.
I disagree.....no woman in her right mind would say, I know the job pays 40k but please pay me just 30k....I'll be happy with 10k less.....
Maybe at the CEO level she may be willing to do the job for 50 million vs 60 million for the male version......but I even doubt that Pinqy...
I contend that NO ONE is HAPPY being paid much less for the exact same work!!!
Like I said, it depends on what someone wants out of their job. Perhaps the woman working for 30k wants to be home on weekends, and has that, in her job deal, where as the man works every weekend.
All I am saying, is that the numbers are skewed. Because every situation is different.
but again THAT is not an example of equal pay for equal work, if a deal is worked where she does not have to work weekends or whatever, vs the counterpart worker having to do more and being paid more for doing more.
Is there such a thing as equal work?
Can people actually do equal work?
If a man gets to work and clocks in 645(supposedly to be there at 7) and clocks out at 315(with an out time of 3) and another man clocks in at 705 and out at 255, both men doing the same job, there is a 20 minute a day difference in their paychecks.
Now it might be that the man working shorter time, is acutally producing more than the man staying longer, but the man staying longer is making more money, for doing the same job.
Like I have said, every situation is different, and no job can be done identically by anyone other than computers and robots.
Well, I am not the type to sue, just gave me incentive to work harder...
And my story is JUST THE OPPOSITE, where I was the one on salary working 50 hours a week, and I was the one who had a 27% increase over the previous year, where a man was the Manager of the Business, who worked only 40 hours a week, and left the second 5 pm came around, and I was the one who made the company more profit than the male manager before me, and I was the one who had a perfect Inventory with NO shortages, while the male manager before me had a 2% loss, and I was paid several thousand dollars less than him.... this happened 3 times in a row, with this company...they promoted me to larger stores and larger stores as a manager, replacing their male managers, doing one hell of a job BETTER than the previous managers EVER could, and was paid less than them each and every time....but I bit my tongue and just worked harder.... I wanted to be a Buyer, there were no female buyers for this corporation that I worked for, but I wanted to be one, so help me God, I wanted it so badly...I told everyone at the corporate head quarters, heck, I even told the truck driver who delivered my department's goods...I told the president o the Company and anyone that would listen, that I wanted to be a Buyer.... And I busted my butt, year after year, giving them increases in sales and in profit, till finally the positioned opened...a male buyer was going to work or our sister company in Texas.... I interviewed with the vice president and he turned me down for the job...thought I was too young or "just a 24 yr old female, what did I know?" ( IS WHAT HE ACTUALLY used to say to me every day on the job....)
Well I went to the President, over this vp that was hiring's head, and told the President that I wanted this job...that I KNEW I could do it and be good at it.....
AND THANK GOD, the president had only two daughters and no sons and showed some compassion or could empathize and went and spoke to the vp and TOLD the vp, to HIRE me for the Buyer's job....and told the VP that "Anyone that wants a job as much as I wanted the job, deserves the chance"...
And they DID hire me, at 20% less than they paid the previous male (green) Buyer....and I was the Best Buyer they ever had...
I still stuck it out...not because I was Happy being paid less, but because I was grateful for the opportunity that all females before me, never had....
It was almost 10 years later, when it finally paid off...when the VP Merchandiser left the Company to go work for someone else, he recommended to the President of the Company, that I take his place...he didn't recommend any of the male buyers for the position....but me. SO FINALLY I was making more than them....
I think things have changed since way back when, and it is not as difficult as it was in my heyday... but I do believe these things may still be happening to a degree...
I don't know if I would have been better off not going through those struggles, it gave determination I had no idea I even had....it strengthened me, that I know.
