Comparable Worth--A Socioeconomic Issue for the Eighties

Comparable worth can be seen as a natural result of earlier civil rights actions. The Equal Pay Act prohibited employers from using gender as a basis for wage differentials, but this Act did not cover the vast majority of working women, those in traditionally low-paying and female-dominated occupations. Even when educational and other prerequisites are equal within an occupation, the salary inequities resulting from sex-typing jobs are estimated at $20 billion. To prove that there is unequal pay for essentially equal or comparable work and to increase pay equitably, jobs must be reevaluated to determine what skills they require and how comparable skills in other jobs are valued in the marketplace. There has been a good deal of emphasis on reassessing job analysis, job classification, and performance appraisal systems. The comparable worth issue could have implications for three GAO units involved in nondiscrimination, equal employment, and worker protection programs. Internally, GAO may also feel the effect of the controversy. It is going through the process of establishing its own performance appraisal system when a volume of literature suggests that such systems are exceedingly vulnerable to criticisms of discrimination. Every organization, especially those trying to set up a standardized job evaluation system, must grapple with the problem of equity in compensation. GAO may be in the unusual situation of evaluating other systems while it is setting up its own.