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An idea whose time has not come: comparable worth and the market salary problem

✍ Scribed by Cheryl L. Gaston


Publisher
Springer
Year
1986
Tongue
English
Weight
915 KB
Volume
5
Category
Article
ISSN
0167-5923

No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.

✦ Synopsis


This article analyzes the most recent decision by a U.S. court to reject implementing the doctrine of comparable worth under the disparate impact approach to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The case involved an employer that based compensation for employees upon competitive market rates. The disparate impact model would appear on the surface to be the appropriate vehicle to address wage inequalities that result from a market rate system, since market rates would seem to qualify as a facially neutral employer policy which has a discriminatory impact. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, however, found the model was inappropriate to challenge wide-ranging general compensation policies and particularly the practice of basing compensation for employees upon the competitive market.