ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the economic and pragmatic arguments of both sides of the comparable worth debate. It describes the legal background to the debate, legislative developments on the state and national levels, and judicial decisions. The chapter argues that lie primarily in economic arguments or disputes about the practical consequences of implementing such a reform. Comparable worth, or pay equity in its newer guise, is an attractive concept: if only employers could be required to pay female employees in traditionally female occupations the same salaries as males in male-dominated jobs of comparable value to their employers, then the “wage gap” would largely disappear. As Joy Ann Grune, former executive director of the National Committee on Pay Equity, one of the leading activist groups, wrote: Culture, history, psychiatry, and social relations all have a role in wage discrimination, as they do in other legal rights issues.
