Should US companies be required to provide equal pay to women and men? – Part 19

Should US companies be required to provide equal pay to women and men?

Encouraged? Yes. Required? No. Employment compensation should be based solely on value to the company. The term “value”, as it applies here, encompasses many different qualities that employees, whether men or women, can offer to the workplace. These qualities include level of knowledge of the type of work being performed; ability to perform well in the workplace without constant supervision; tenure with the company; level of education; ability to work as a team player if required for the position, and responsibility/accountability, among many others. To simply write a law requiring companies to pay men and women the same salary for the same position would shortchange women and men. Imagine how hard it would be for anyone, male or female, to receive pay raises for excellent work if the government was mandating that they earn the same as everyone else in their department. It would be virtually impossible to advance in your career without a direct promotion to a position with a higher level of compensation. U.S. companies are already encouraged to treat men and women equally in the workplace, and the practice of paying women less than men has been nearly eradicated. Besides this, it would be a difficult and costly law to enforce, and the money to fund its enforcement would come out of the taxpayers’ pockets. To some relatively small extent it does still exist, but just look at the progress women have made in the past fifty years alone! Considering what an explosive force we women have become in all arenas of society, I am certain that we can move up in the workplace without the legislators having to intervene on our behalf.