Incomparable Worth
Pay Equity Meets the Market

An analysis of the political and economic consequences of comparable worth or pay equity policies in the USA, the UK, and Australia.

Steven E. Rhoads (Author)

9780521478281, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 26 August 1994

336 pages
22.8 x 15.2 x 2.5 cm, 0.505 kg

' … stimulating and entertaining …' Michael Rubenstein, New Statesman & Society

Comparable worth, or pay equity, is now an established policy in some US states, such as Minnesota, and the UK and Australia. Yet Steven Rhoads's research on those jurisdictions indicates there is no consensus on how to compare the value of dissimilar jobs involving 'comparable' amounts of effort, skill and responsibility. Consultants whose job evaluation systems are used in states adopting comparable worth policies do not agree on the factors to be included or how they should be weighed and arbitrary results produced by comparable worth policies have led to inefficient functioning of the labour markets. These policies have generated ill will among the workers who lose pay-equity cases, with political as well as economic consequences. The book argues that jobs are truly incomparable using the methods comparable worth relies on, and that the principles of comparable worth are not reconcilable with those of a market economy.

1. Introduction
2. The debate over equal pay for comparable worth
3. Implementing comparable worth in Minnesota
4. Job evaluation in Minnesota localities
5. Equal pay for work of equal value in the European Community
6. Equal pay for work of equal value in the United Kingdom
7. Equal pay for work of equal value in Australia
8. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Political economy [KCP]