Chapter 11 Women’s Employment & Earnings: Policy

1. Chapter 11 Women’s Employment & Earnings: Policy • Discrimination Law • Affirmative Action • Comparable Worth

2. Why laws? • equity • treat all in the labor market equally • not necessarily equal result • but equal opportunity

3. efficiency • discriminating against groups means losing out on those skills • society loses output • example: Justice O’Connor (403)

4. a change in the law may bring about a change in societal attitudes • cons: • compliance costs • litigation costs

5. Federal Laws • Equal Pay Act of 1963 • The Civil Rights Act of 1964 • The ERA (not passed)

6. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 • prohibits wage discrimination for women and men performing work for same employer of similar • skill • effort • responsibility • working conditions

7. restrictive • how to define “similar”? • covers almost all employers

8. exceptions if wages differ by sex due to • seniority system • merit pay system • any factor other than sex

9. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 • created EEOC to enforce the law • prohibits discrimination on basis of race, sex, color, religion, national origin • Title VII – employment • Title IX -- education

10. Title VII • hiring/firing/layoff • compensation/benefits • job title/promotions/tranfers • ads/recruitment • training/facilities • disability leave • all employers with > 15 workers

11. exceptions • if sex, religion, is legitimate job requirement • “BFOQ” • EEOC vs. Hooters (1995)

12. sexual harassment • illegal under title VII • “quid pro quo” • sex-for-job, raise, promotion • hostile work environment • behavior of coworkers make interferes with job

13. back to interview questions • questions about marital, family status • may violate title VII if used against women and not against men

14. pregnancy based discrimination • amendment, 1978 • pregnancy, childbirth and related disabilities must be treated same as other disabilities/illnesses in employer policy

15. Proving discrimination • disparate treatment • individuals treated differently b/c of race, sex, etc. AND • intent to discriminate

16. disparate impact • even if no intent • firm is liable if actions lead to discriminatory outcome • unless policy is shown to be necessary for job • seniority systems are permitted

17. pattern of discrimination • defendants regular practice vs. • isolated incident

18. Title IX • education programs receiving federal aid • implications for sports programs

19. Title IX & sports • 1972 • < 30,000 female NCAA athletes • 2000 • > 150,000 NCAA female athletes

20. college sports programs • schools comply by • % female athletes proportional to enrollment • history of expanding sports opportunities for females

21. controversy • are low-profile men’s sports cut to comply with Title IX? • due to large spending on sports like men’s basketball & football

22. note • no school has ever lost federal aid for noncompliance with Title IX

23. Civil Rights Act • does not prohibit discrimination based on • sexual orientation • marital status • family status • but many states and municipalities do

24. Affirmative Action • Executive Order 11246 (1965) • government contractors must have an affirmative action plan • many large firms have a voluntary AA plan

25. AA plan • increase employment of women, minorities • outlines goals, timetables

26. cons • AA is reverse discrimination • leads to favoring less-qualified minorities? • illegal under Title VII • stigmatizes women, minorities as less qualified • only applied to a subset of firms

27. pros • forces firms to make focused effort on diverse applicant pool • compensates for past discrimination • benefits to diversified workforce • protection from lawsuits

28. Evidence of effectiveness • Title VII & AA • large increases of employment for minority women • more so than white women • opened up traditionally male jobs to women

29. Comparable Worth • job characteristics/skills should receive same return • regardless of job • or who does the job

30. supporters believe jobs with high % of females are undervalued, relative to skills • correlation between % female and lower pay

31. Equal Pay Act is very restrictive in what jobs are similar • comparable worth is more general in valuing jobs

32. How to determine value? • do jobs have an intrinsic value or “just wage”? • economists: • value of job is what someone is willing to pay you to do it

33. value of skills • same across all jobs? • supply of skills relative to the demand for those skills

34. so some jobs pay more because the required skills are scarce • some jobs pay more because skills are in higher demand

35. English profs vs. economics profs • same responsibilities • teaching, research, advising • English profs have higher % female • English profs of same rank earn significantly less

36. demand-side • demand for English course vs. economics courses • implies demand for professors

37. supply-side • supply of English Ph.Ds much larger than supply of economics Ph.Ds

38. CW for professors? • may result in • shortage of economics profs • surplus of English profs

39. How to implement CW? • use a point system to assign pt. values to skills, working conditions • add up points for each job

40. problems • what are the relevant skills, working conditions to measure? • is there agreement on their value? • sex-related biases in valuing skills • undervalue typing? nurturing? • overvalue mechanical skills?

41. states, cities have implemented CW • different conclusions about job values

42. are women better off under CW? • wages rise • but employment growth slows • so higher earnings at the costs of jobs? • & may be distortions in labor market

43. Looking back, chapters 8-11 • so how discriminatory is the earnings gap? • is it about different choices? • or different constraints?

44. Vicky LovellInstitute for Women’s Policy Research “The question is how do we interpret the fact that women don’t have as much occupational choice as men do?....

45. “… Men choose to have children and choose to be admitted to the work force because they’ve already established that women will be doing the caring work, relieving them of the work-family conflict…”

46. “…Society has narrowed women’s choices in a way that it hasn’t narrowed men’s choices.”