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Ten Principles of Economics - Part 43

Ten Principles of Economics - Part 43. Economics is the study of how society manages its scarce resources. In most societies, resources are allocated not by a single central planner but through the combined actions of millions of households and firms. Economists therefore study how people make decisions: how much they work, what they buy, how much they save, and how they invest their savings. Economists also study how people interact with one another. | CHAPTER 19 EARNINGS AND DISCRIMINATION 433 IN THE NEWS The Recent Push for Comparable Worth Over the past several years the idea of comparable worth sometimes called pay equity has made a comeback among some political leaders. Labor and Women Push for Equal Pay for Equivalent Work By Mary Leonard Washington Nobody says men and women shouldn t get equal pay for doing the same job. But what s brewing now is a big push nationally by the president organized labor and women s rights groups to level the gender playing field on wages for different but equivalent work. In a strategy session today Senator Tom Harkin an Iowa Democrat who has been the lonely champion for pay-equity legislation since 1996 will meet with John Podesta the president s chief of staff and other officials on ways the White House can boost his bill this year. Yesterday the AFL-CIO launched a nationwide campaign to pass comparable-worth bills in 24 states including Massachusetts. What s going on here Trying to determine comparable salaries for jobs traditionally held by men and women is an old idea discredited by some economists as unwieldy if not downright dumb. They wonder who can and will decide the economic value of a riveter versus a nurse the comparable pay for a probation officer and a librarian the equivalent pay for an auto mechanic and a secretary. Many see pay equity even if it is difficult to enforce as the only remedy for wage discrimination a problem that persists for women even as they have earned advanced degrees climbed the corporate ladder and plopped their children in day care while pursuing full-time jobs in large numbers. For too long working women have been seething while politicians have remained silent said Karen Nussbaum director of the AFL-CIO s Working Women s department. Pay equity can right a long-standing wrong. . . . Diana Furchtgott-Roth a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute says there are plenty of reasons why men and women earn different wages .