NetwErk GUrl |
11-13-2012 01:54 PM |
Quote:
Originally Posted by woj
(Post 19303228)
I didn't mean offend you or any one else, I'm just stating facts, it's been claimed that women earn 25% less, and if that's the case...
why do you think companies are not hiring 100% women and saving 25%?
Only a fool would pay a man $80k/year, when a woman would perform the work 100% equally well for $60k...
so either the claim that women earn 25% less is not true OR there are some difference in the traits/qualities/etc that justify the pay difference...
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This is not a test for Occam's Razor... it's just not that simple. Your statement would be true if there was a fair value standard on a salary for work done, but there isn't. Salaries are negotiable and private, and the point here is that women negotiate lower salaries and generally don't know it. In contrast, men generally negotiate higher salaries, and also don't know it.
The employer is getting away with paying women less for the same quality work because they can, because there is an out-dated inherent "perceived" inequality in the system. When slavery was legal, the owners didn't pay their slaves, but the slaves worked just as hard or harder than any regular employee. In this modern day, a woman isn't an inferior worker because she is paid less, but she *is* paid less because of a perceived inequality that is unfounded, like a slave worker was perceived as unequal in the past. By your logic above, slaves would have never been freed or paid, because they obviously deserve nothing, since they worked for it for so long.
To answer your question "If women were as good, why wouldn't companies hire all women and save 25%" (paraphrase) I'd say its because they'd no longer get away with paying the lower salary if they did... part of how this has continued is the secrecy of salaries and downplaying of the issue. A company, or all companies, who started hiring women because they are "cheaper" would get noticed the way the companies that are hiring 3rd world labor are noticed. Women would demand better salaries once the reason for their hiring exclusivity was discovered. How would such an employer explain their hiring strategy away in the modern socio-political climate? They'd get sued or their entire staff would quit or they'd just end up having to raise salaries AND be known for the controversy forever after.
The theory companies could hire all women and pay less reinforces the same sexism that is the problem.
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