This article provides an overview of pay equity as well as an update of recent developments concerning this issue. The article summarizes the arguments advanced by pay equity advocates and opponents. There is a discussion of the leading court decisions which is organized as cases brought before and after the United States Supreme Court's landmark decision in the case of County of Washington v. Gunther, 452 U.S. 161 (1981). The position of the Reagan Administration, as set forth by the Department of Justice and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission also is summarized. The article includes a description of the legislation pending before the 99th United States Congress along with state legislative developments. The final section of the article is a pay equity bibliography.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.Breaking the Pattern of Injustice: AFSCME's Blueprint for Pay Equity (Washington: 1983).
2.
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.Pay Equity: A Union Issue for the 1980's (Washington: 1980).
3.
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.Pay Equity on Trial (Washington: 1983).
4.
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.You've Come a Long Way—Maybe: A Working Woman's Guide to Pay Equity (Washington: 1984).
5.
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.Winning the Fight for Pay Equity (Washington: 1984).
6.
BellaceJanice R.“Comparable Worth: Proving Sex-Based Wage Discrimination,”69Iowa Law Review655 (1984).
7.
BellakAlvin O.BatesMarsh W.GlasnerDaniel M.. “Job Evaluation: Its Role in the Comparable Worth Debate,”Public Personnel Management (Winter 1983).
8.
BlumrosenRuth G.“Wage Discrimination, Job Segregation, and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,”12University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform402 (1979).
9.
BrennanE. James. Job Evaluation Practices and Their Impact on Equitable Pay for Women (Washington: National Commission on Working Women, 1983).
10.
BufordJames A.Jr.NorrisD. R.“A Salary Equalization Model: Identifying and Correcting Sex-Based Salary Differences,”Employee Relations Law Journal, 6, No. 3 (Winter 1980–81).
11.
Bureau of National Affairs.The Comparable Worth Issue: A BNA Special Report (Washington: 1981).
12.
Bureau of National Affairs.Pay Equity and Comparable Worth: A BNA Special Report (Washington: 1984).
13.
California Department of Personnel Administration.Comparable Worth: A Summary of Information Relevant to the Salaries for Female-Dominated Jobs. Report to the California Legislature and Exclusive Representatives of State Employees (Sacramento: 1982).
14.
California Commission on the Status of Women.Pay Inequities for Women: Comparable Worth and Other Solutions (Sacramento: 1983).
15.
California Commission on the Status of Women.Pay Inequities for Women Workers. Submitted to the California Legislature, prepared by Phyllis Cheng, Pamela Metcalf, and Kathleen W. Mikkelson (Sacramento: 1985).
16.
California State University.Report on the Study Salaries for Female Dominated Classes in the California State University (1984).
17.
CarterMichael F.“Comparable Worth: An Idea Whose Time Has Come?”Personnel Journal (October 1981).
18.
CookAlice H.Comparable Worth: A Case Book of Experiences in States and Localities (Honolulu: University of Hawaii, Industrial Relations Center, 1985).
19.
CookAlice H.Comparable Worth: The Problem and States' Approaches to Wage Equity (Honolulu: University of Hawaii, Industrial Relations Center, 1983).
20.
EhrenbergRonald G.SmithRobert S.. Comparable Worth in the Public Sector (Cambridge: National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper no. 1471, 1984).
21.
Equal Employment Advisory Council.Comparable Worth: A Symposium on the Issues and Alternatives (Washington: 1981).
22.
EydeLorraine D.“Evaluating Job Evaluation: Emerging Research Issues for Comparable Worth Analysis,”Public Personnel Management (Winter 1983).
23.
FarnquistRobert L.ArmstrongDavid R.StrausbaughRussell P.. “Pandora's Worth: The San Jose Experience,”Public Personnel Management (Winter 1983).
24.
Fresno City Employees Association, Comparable Worth Committee.Comparable Worth for Fresno City Employees: Preliminary Findings (Fresno: 1982).
25.
FrissLois. Equal Pay for Comparable Work: Stimulus for System Reform (Los Angeles: 1981).
26.
FulghumJudy B.“The Employer's Liabilities Under Comparable Worth,”Personnel Journal (May 1983).
GasawayLaura N.“Comparable Worth: A Post-Gunther Overview,”69Georgetown Law Journal1123 (1981).
29.
GoldMichael Evan. A Dialogue on Comparable Worth (Ithaca: ILR Press, New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University, 1983).
30.
GoldMichael Evan. “A Tale of Two Amendments: The Reasons Congress Adds Sex to Title VII and Their Implications for the Issue of Comparable Worth,”19Duquesne Law Review432 (1981).
31.
GolperJohn B.“The Current Legal Status of ‘Comparable Worth’ in the Federal Courts,”Labor Law Journal (September 1983).
32.
GruneJoy Ann (ed.). Manual on Pay Equity, Raising Wages for Women's Work (Washington: Conference on Alternative State and Local Policies, 1980).
33.
GruneJoy AnnRederNancy. “Addendum—Pay Equity: An Innovative Public Policy Approach to Eliminating Sex-Based Wage Discrimination,”Public Personnel Management (Spring 1984).
34.
HartmanHeidi I.TreimanDonald J.. “Notes on the NAS Study of Equal Pay for Jobs of Equal Value,”Public Personnel Management (Winter 1983).
35.
Illinois Commission on the Status of Women.A Study of Job Classifications Currently Used by the State of Illinois to Determine if Sex Discrimination Exists in the Classification System; Pilot Project (Springfield: 1983).
36.
KurtzMaxineHockingClyde E.. “Nurses v. Tree Trimmers,”Public Personnel Management (Winter 1983).
37.
LeachDaniel E.“Comparable Worth, Job Evaluation and Wage Discrimination: The Employer Approaches Wage Gap Issues in the 1980's,”Journal of the College & University Personnel Association (Winter 1984).
38.
LivernashE. Robert (ed.). Comparable Worth: Issues and Alternatives (Washington: Equal Employment Advisory Council, 1980).
39.
LorberLawrence Z.KirkRobert J.. “A Status Report on the Theory of Comparable Worth: Recent Developments in the Law of Wage Discrimination,”Public Personnel Management (Winter 1983).
40.
LorberLawrence Z.KirkRobert J.SammuelsStephen C.SpellmanDavid J.III. Sex and Salary: A Legal and Personnel Analysis of Comparable Worth (Virginia: 1985).
41.
MilkovichGeorge T.BroderickRenae, “Pay Discrimination: Legal Issues and Implications for Research,”Industrial Relations (Fall 1982).
42.
MincbergMella Rachel. Comparable Worth in San Francisco: Overview, Issues and Options (Berkeley: University of California, Graduate School of Public Policy, 1982).
43.
National Commission on Working Women.Women's Work: Undervalued, Underpaid (Washington: 1983).
44.
NelsonBruce A.OptonEdward M.Jr.WilsonThomas E.. “Wage Discrimination and the ‘Comparable Worth’ Theory in Perspective,”13University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform231 (1980).
45.
NelsonBruce A.OptonEdward M.Jr.WilsonThomas E.. “Wage Discrimination and Title VII in the 1980s: The Case Against ‘Comparable Worth”, Employee Relations Law Journal (Winter 1980–81).
46.
New Jersey Commission on Sex Discrimination in the Statutes.A Study of Job and Salary Classification in New Jersey State Service: “Equal Pay for Work of Equal Value,” prepared by Mary Lavigne-Butler (Trenton: 1982).
47.
NewmanWinn. “Pay Equity: An Emerging Labor Issue,”Proceedings of the IRRA 34th Annual Meeting (Madison: 1982).
48.
NewmanWinn. “Statement to the Equal Pay Joint Committee,”Public Personnel Management (Winter 1983).
49.
NewmanWinnVonhofJeanne M.. ‘Separte But Equal’—Job Segregation and Pay Equity in the Wake of Gunther,” 1981 University of Illinois Law Review269 (1981).
50.
NorwoodJanet L.The Female-Male Earnings Gap: A Review of Employment and Earnings Issues (Washington: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Report 673 1983).
51.
PiersonDavid A.KoziaraKaren S.JohannessonRussell E.. “Equal Pay for Jobs of Comparable Worth: A Quantified Job Content Approach,”Public Personnel Management (Winter 1983).
52.
RatnerRonnie Steinberg (ed.). Equal Employment Policy for Women: Strategies for Implementation in the United States, Canada, and Western Europe (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1980).
53.
RemickHelen (ed.). Comparable Worth and Wage Discrimination: Technical Possibilities and Political Realities (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1984).
54.
RemickHelen. Comparable Worth and Wages: Economic Equity for Women (Honolulu: University of Hawaii, Industrial Relations Center, 1984).
55.
RemickHelen. “The Comparable Worth Controversy,”Public Personnel Management (Winter 1981).
56.
RemickHelen. “An Update on Washington State,”Public Personnel Management (Winter 1983).
57.
RosenBensonRynesSaraMahoneyThomas A.. “Compensation, Jobs, and Gender,”Harvard Business Review (July/August 1983).
58.
SapeGeorge P.“Coping with Comparable Worth,”Harvard Business Review (May/June 1985).
59.
SiniscalcoGary R.RemmersCynthia L.. “Comparable Worth in the Aftermath of AFSCME v. State of Washington,”Employee Relations Law Journal (Summer 1984).
60.
SiniscalcoGary R.RemmersCynthia L.. “Nonjudicial Developments in Comparable Worth,”Employee Relations Law Journal (Autumn 1984).
61.
SiniscalcoGary R.RemmersCynthia L.. “A Special Update: Comparable Worth,”Employee Relations Law Journal (Winter 1983/84).
62.
SmithJames P.WardMichael P.. Women's Wages and Work in the Twentieth Century (Santa Monica: RAND Corp., 1984).
63.
StrawRonnie J.FogedLorel E.. “Job Evaluation: One Union's Experience,”ILR Report (Spring 1982).
64.
ThomasClarence. “Pay Equity and Comparable Worth,”Labor Law Journal (January 1983).
65.
TreimanDonald J.Job Evaluation: An Analytic Review; Interim Report to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Staff Paper Prepared for the Committee on Occupational Classification and Analysis, Assembly of Behavioral and Social Sciences, National Research Council (Washington: National Academy of Sciences, 1979).
66.
TreimanDonald J.HartmannHeidi I. (ed.). Women, Work, and Wages: Equal Pay for Jobs of Comparative Value, prepared by the Committee on Occupational Classification and Analysis, Assembly of Behavioral and Social Sciences, National Research Council (Washington: National Academy Press, 1981).
67.
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.Comparable Worth: An Analysis and Recommendations (Washintgon: 1984).
68.
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.Comparable Worth: Issue for the 80's, A Consultation of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights 2 vols. (Washington: 1984).
69.
U.S. Congress.House. Committee on Government Operations. Pay Equity: EEOC's Handling of Sex-Based Wage Discrimination Complaints, 39th Report (Washington: 1984).
70.
U.S. Congress. House. Committee on Post Office and Civil Service. Federal Pay Equity Act of 1984, Hearings, Part 1 (Washington: 1984).
71.
U.S. Congress. House. Committee on Post Office and Civil Service. Pay Equity: Equal Pay for Work of Comparable Value, Hearings; Parts I & II (Washington: 1983).
72.
U.S. Department of Labor. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Perspectives on Working Women: A Databook (Washington: Bulletin. 2080, 1980).
73.
U.S. Department of Labor. Women's Bureau. The Earnings Gap Between Women and Men (Washington: 1979).
74.
U.S. General Accounting Office.Options for Conducting a Pay Equity Study of Federal Pay and Classification Systems (Washington: 1985).
75.
WeilerPaul. The Uses and Limits of Comparable Worth in the Pursuit of Pay Equity for Women Discussion Paper No. 15, Program in Law and Economics, Harvard Law School (Cambridge: 1985).
76.
Who's Working for Working Women? Comparable Worth Project, National Committee on Pay Equity, and National Women's Political Caucus (Washington: 1984).
77.
Willis (Norman D.) and Associates.State of Washington Comparable Worth Study, September 1974 (Seattle: 1974).
78.
Willis (Norman D.) and Associates.State of Washington Comparable Worth Study, Phase II, December 1976 (Seattle: 1976).
79.
Young (Arthur) & Company.A Comparable Worth Study of the State of Michigan Job Classifications.Office of Women and Work, Michigan Department of Labor (Detroit: n.d.).
