Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

An extensive body of empirical literature has addressed the issue of sex-based wage differentials in the United States. The fact that this gap persists over time means that a large body of literature exists on the topic. Most recent research suggests that while the gap may vary based on a variety of factors including type of job, years of experience, economic sector, etc., sex-based wage differences remain. Comparable worth is a process that is supposed to address the sex-based wage gap by objectively comparing dissimilar jobs in order to determine relative worth to the objectives of a particular organization. The process involves a complex system of fine-tuning an entire compensation structure. The information required to engage in comparable worth is considerable: jobs must be ranked according to the worth to the employer. This implies measuring the value of each job and calculating degrees of difference between the values of different jobs. Thus, if two jobs require equivalent levels of skill, education, responsibility, etc., the two should also have equivalent salaries. Within this research tradition much attention has been paid to the impact of the sex composition of an occupation on the wages of men and women. Findings consistently report that lower hourly wages are associated with those occupations having a larger proportion of women. Many researchers contend that this difference ... log in or subscribe to read full text