---Pay secrecy policies may perpetuate the gender-wage gap, if women don’t reali
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Question
---Pay secrecy policies may perpetuate the gender-wage gap, if women don’t realize they are underpaid (as in the Lilly Ledbetter case). What do you think of pay secrecy vs. pay openness policies?
---Comparable worth is the idea that men’s work and women’s work should be paid the same if the skill, effort, and responsibility are comparable, even if the jobs are different. What do you think of comparable worth?
---Women typically negotiate less for pay than men do, and as a result, women often have lower salaries than men. And when women do negotiate hard, they are viewed more negatively. Is the common practice of pay negotiation fair or not? What if the job doesn’t require negotiating skills?
Explanation / Answer
Answer: I feel that pay openness reflects integrity on the part of the employer. If there is pay openness it indicates that there is no discrimination present in the employment conditions. On the other hand the pay secrecy is a clear indication that there is some type of discrimination in the pay structures which the company wants to hide. Thus pay openness is an indication of pay fairness while pay secrecy indicates that something is wrong.
There are many jobs which are segregated by gender like most of the secretaries in the offices are female while most of the construction workers re male. Both the jobs demand kills and labour but the office secretaries are paid a lower wage. This is mainly because that the idea of comparable worth is absent. The idea of Comparable worth is therefore required to bring equity at the workplace so that both male and females get a right wage for the efforts they are made. I feel comparable worth is a good idea which is essential for bringing equity in compensation and removing disparity. It is essential that the jobs in which the skills; efforts and responsibilities are same should be paid at parity. Disparity which exists in the compensation systems should be removed.
Yes the common practise of pay negotiations is not fair and they do not pay the women at par with men. The women who negotiate are taken in bad light and therefore it is required that this system needs to change. The women need to bargain hard even if it sends a negative image of them .Even if the job doesn’t require negotiation skills it is still required that candidate negotiate as without it they cannot get a fair salary in a system which is not fair.
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