Pay Equity Equal Pay For Work Of Comparable Value

This document provides some historical factors relating to equal pay. It discusses value and equity, equal pay since 1970, the pay equity programmes, job evaluation, issues arising from pay equity, and alternatives.

This publication contains papers which address the following issues: how to cope with pay equity legislation; the view from the Commission on pay equity; who is the employer in terms of the Pay Equity Act?; the implication of pay equity on job evaluation systems; some legal issues concerning the Pay Equity Act; definition and implementation of Pay equity at the University of Western Ontario; and management and unions working together for pay equity.

In order to determine whether methods of job analysis and classification currently used are biased by traditional sex stereotypes or other factors, a committee assessed formal systems of job evaluation and other methods currently employed in the private and public sectors for establishing the comparability of jobs and their levels of compensation. A review of sociological and economic literature shows that some differences in the characteristics of workers and in jobs do form a legitimate basis for wage differentials. Nevertheless, there exists a pervasiveness of occupational and job segregation by sex. Given the current operation of the labor market and the existence of a variety of factors that permit the persistence of earning differentials between men and women (e.g., labor market segmentation, job segregation, and employment practices), it would seem that intentional and unintentional discriminatory elements enter into the determination of wages and are not likely to disappear. Use of a job evaluation system is one possible remedy to this situation. While the subjectivity of job evaluation makes job evaluations less than perfect vehicles for resolving pay disputes, they can serve to identify potential wage discrimination. (MN)

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

Equal pay for work of comparable worth, labour legislation, text and comment, Canada - government policy, judicial decisions, ILO Convention No. 100, USA, EC Directive. Bibliography, tables.