Comparable Worth

Comparable worth is the theory that states that wages for particular occupations, most notably those traditionally filled by women, should be set by an assessment of the meaningfulness of the work in relation to jobs of similar worth rather than through a market-determined process that often results in lower wages for women in certain jobs. Factors such as education, skills, effort, responsibility, experience, and other relevant factors are all part of a formula to determine the relative worth of a job and the employee is paid consistent with that determination. This avoids the issue of paying employees different wages for jobs based on whether the jobs are male or female dominated and would avoid the limitations of the law only permitting comparison of pay among ...