Should US companies be required to provide equal pay to women and men? – Part 27

The free market should not be interfered with by coercing companies to provide equal pay for the sexes.

Actually, this would reward people for their gender rather than their work? So, how does that make sense? Wasn’t the complaint all along that women were not receiving what their work was worth? Yes, but we have to remember that men and women are different. Women, for example, are more likely to take time off to care for a sick child. This is especially so for single mothers. Under conditions like that, men and women should not get equal pay for work that would quantitatively not be equal. Reliability is very important in the workforce.

As well, if a woman’s work is of equal value, then the market would adjust for that and punish those companies who don’t accept that. A mass movement on the part of women as a whole to negotiate their own wages in a manner that is conducive to the ideals of equal rights would be more than enough to accomplish this. If it’s not enough, then perhaps women need to ask themselves some questions: is their something about their unique situation as women to reduce the value of their work? And from that will naturally come another question, are women really necessary for the economic health of most companies? Those are dangerous questions, aren’t they?

But I, as a woman, should not let such traitorous thoughts run through my brain! Unfortunately for the “divine” systerhood(sic), I care more about the right thing and private property rights than childish demands for the world to bend to my conception of “fairness”. I simply don’t believe women can be called “independent” unless they truly can stand up on their own two feet, rather than expecting Big Brother to tell employers what they should be paid.

Withholding services or equitable pay is not directly harmful since the worker can go to a union or leave the job and find greener pastures. The employer is not the worker’s provider. The employee does not have the right to expect the employer to take care of her or to treat her fairly. The only right he or she has is the right to negotiate their pay, join a union, or quit the job. I see little excuse for violating another person’s or company’s private property.

It’s as my Mother says, “we all have choices in life”. Stealing (and coercing equal payment is little else than that) is not the solution. You start forcing companies to give equal pay, and the next step down that slippery slope is full fledged socialism for the reasons I elucidated above. Is that what we really want?