National Academies Press: OpenBook

Comparable Worth: New Directions for Research (1985)

Chapter: Front Matter

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1985. Comparable Worth: New Directions for Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/55.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1985. Comparable Worth: New Directions for Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/55.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1985. Comparable Worth: New Directions for Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/55.
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C;OMPARABLE , ~ ~—_~. __ New Directions for Research - Heidi I. Hartmann, Editor Committee on Women's Employment and Related Social Issues Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education National Research Council NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS Washington, D.C. 1985

NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS 2101 Constitution Ave., NVV Washington, DC 20418 NOTICE: The project Hat is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance. This report has been reviewed by a group other then the authors according to procedures approved by a Report Review Committee consisting of members of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The National Research Council was established by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy's purposes of further- ing knowledge and of advising the federal government. The Council operates in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy under the authority of its congressional charter of 1863, which establishes the Academy as a private, nonprofit, self-governing membership colpora- tion. The Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in the conduct of their services to the govern- ment, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. It is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. The National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine were established in 1964 and 1970, respectively, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences. This project was supported by the Ford Foundation. Library oIC~gress Cataloging HI Publication Data Main entry under title: Comparable worth. "Committee on Women's Employment and Related Social issues, Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, National Research Council." Report of and revised papers from the Seminar on Comparable Worth Research held at Hilton Head, South Carolina on Oct. 7-8, 1983. Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Equal pay for equal work—United States—Research— Congresses. I. Hartmann, lIeidi I. II. National Research Council (U.S.). Committee on Women's Employment and Related Social Issues. III. Seminar on Comparable Worth Research (1983: Hilton Head, S.C.) HD6061.2.U6C653 1985 331.2'1 85-60053 ISBN 0-3Q9-03534-1 Printed in the United States of America

COMMITTEE ON WOMEN'S EMPLOYMENT AND RELATED SOCIAL ISSUES ALICE S. ILCHMAN (Chair), President, Sarah Lawrence College CECILIA P. BURCIAGA, Office of the Dean and Vice Provost, Stanford University CYNTHIA FUCHS EPSTEIN, Graduate Center, City University of New York, and Russell Sage Foundation, New York LAWRENCE M. KAHN, Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations, University of Illinois GENE E. KOFKE, American Telephone and Telegraph Company, New York ROBERT E. KRAUT, Bell Communications Research, Inc., Morristown, NJ. JEAN BAKER MILLER, Stone Center for Developmental Services and Studies, Wellesley College ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON, Georgetown University Law Center GARY ORFIELD, Department of Political Science, University of Chicago NAOMI R. QUINN, Department of Anthropology, Duke University ISABEL V. SAWMILL, The Urban Institute, Washington, D.C. ROBERT M. SOLOW, Department of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology LOUISE A. TILLY, Committee on Historical Studies, Graduate Faculty, New School for Social Research DONALD J. TREIMAN, Department of Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles HEIDI I. HARTMANN, Study Director LUCILE A. DiGIROLAMO, StaffAssistant . . . 111

PARTICIPANTS, SEMINAR ON COMPARABLE WORTH RESEARCH DONALD J. TREIMAN (Chair), Department of Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles BARBARA R. BERGMANN, Department of Economics, University of Maryland AUSON BERNSTEIN, Ford Foundation, New York WILUAM T. BlELBY, Department of Sociology, Univeni~ of C~ifomia, Santa Barbara MICHAEL H. BIRNBAUM, Department of Psychology, University of Illinois PAMELA S. CAIN, Department of Sociology, Hunter College, City University of New York PHOEBE COTTINGHAM, Rockefeller Foundation, New York HEIDI I. HARTMANN (Study Directory, Nations Research Council LAWRENCE M. KAHN, Institute of Labor and Industry Relations, University of Illinois ROSE S. KAUFMAN (Seminar Coordinator), National Research Council MARK R. KILUNGSWORTH, Department of Economics, Rutgers University ROBERT E. KRAUT, Bell Communications Research, Inc., Morristown, N.J. JUDITH E. KURTZ, Equal Rights Advocates, San F=ncisco LESUE Z. McARTHUR, Department of Psychology, Brandeis University KATHERINE McKEE, Ford Foundation, New York NAOMI R. QUINN, Department of Anthropology, Duke University HELEN REMICK, Office of Affirmative Action, University of Washington BARBARA F. RESKIN, Department of Sociology, University of Michigan PATRICIA A. ROOS (Rapponeur), Department of Sociology. State University of do,. . . New York, Stony Brook JAMES E. ROSENBAUM, Department of Sociology, Northwestern University DONALD P. SCHWAB, Graduate School of Business and Industrial Relations Research Institute, University of Wisconsin BARBARA SMITH, Southeast Women s Employment Coalition, Milton, W.Va. RONNIE STEINBERG, Center for Women in Government, State University of New York, Albany IV

Preface This volume is the result of a seminar on comparable worth research organized by the National Research Council (NRC) Committee on Women's Employment and Related Social Issues and sponsored by the Ford Founda- tion. The seminar was designed to develop an agenda for social science research related to comparable worth. It was chaired by Donald J. Treiman, professor of sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and attended by researchers, including members of the committee, from a van- ety of disciplines. To provide background for the participants, the commit- tee asked six social scientists to prepare papers on the comparable worth issue assessing the current state of knowledge about comparable worth and related pay equity issues. This volume includes the report of the seminar, which consists of an agenda of needed research based on discussions at the seminar, as well as revised versions of the papers. The research agenda reflects the overall purpose of the seminar, which was to assess what is known about compara- ble worth, what is not known, and what the resulting research implications are for social scientists. The seminar, held in October 1983, extended and amplified the work on comparable worth of a previous NRC committee, the Committee on Occupational Classification and Analysis. The Committee on Women's Employment and Related Social Issues hoped that one major outcome of the seminar would be the stimulation of research activity in the area of comparable worth among basic researchers not currently working in the area. Toward this end, the committee invited scholars from relevant disciplines who represent differing viewpoints. Both v

Vl i PREFACE those with a demonstrated knowledge of the field and those whose research has not included comparable worth issues were invited. The disciplines represented include anthropology, economics, history, law, psychology, and sociology. In addition, several participants brought to the discussion experience with the practical issues of implementation. Although the discussion focused on comparable worth, the seminar par- ticipants also discussed pay equity strategies more generally. We hope that this report will be useful to a broad range of people with an interest in comparable worth, including social scientists who hope to investigate com- parable worth from their own disciplinary (or interdisciplinary) perspectives and practitioners wishing to explore implementation of comparable worth strategies. AEICE S. ILCHMAN, Chair Committee on Women's Employment and Related Social Issues

Acknowledgments The committee is grateful to the Ford Foundation for its financial support of the seminar and of this report, particularly to Amy Vance and Alison Bernstein, program officers for these projects. Although Amy Vance was unable to attend, her conceptions contributed a great deal to the seminar, and we especially appreciate her continued support throughout the process of developing this volume. I would also like to thank the committee members whose special efforts contributed to this project: Donald J. Treiman, who chaired the seminar and the steering committee that planned it; and Lawrence M. Kahn, Robert E. Kraut, and Naomi R. Quinn, all of whom served on the steering committee and attended the seminar. I would like to convey our thanks especially to all who participated in the seminar as well as to the authors of the papers; without them, of course, the seminar and the report would not have been possible. Our thanks go also to those who wrote the report of the seminar: Heidi I. Hartmann, Patricia A. Roos, and Donald J. Treiman. All members of the committee as well as the seminar participants commented on the draft report, as did members of the Commission on Behavioral and Social Sci- ences and Education, and to all of them we are grateful. As is usually the case with collective projects, there were many actors behind the scenes whose efforts were crucial to the successful completion of this project. I would like to mention the contributions of a few of these people and convey our appreciation to Christine L. McShane, editor of the Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, for her careful editing of the report and accompanying papers; Eugenia Grohman, . . V11

vizz Me co~bs10n's associate dimc~r~ns, ~rherlusight and guidance; Rose S. Kansan, far her Region ~ Al He inner points of meedag a~nge- mems; ~~ DiGimlamo, far her cam~1 cons~e~ion of ~1 the Reps Cessna ~ pence a final pm~cC and Suzanne Donovan and Rha Con- my' kr~ehessemi~ help in complying Be ma~schM. ALKE SHAMAN

Contents I. REPORT OF A SEMINAR An Agenda for Basic Research on Comparable Worth . . . . . . . . 3 Heidi l. Hartmann, Patricia A. Roos, an~Donald ]. Treiman Introduction, 3 Background, 3 Research Issues, 6 Research on Comparable Worth and Other Wage Adjustment Strategies, Social Judgments, Social Judgment Biases, and Job Evaluation Procedures, ~ The Economic Consequences of Implementing Comparable Worth, 12 The Process of Implementing Comparable Worth, 15 Research on Wage Determinants and Wage Discrimination, 18 Pay-Setting Practices and Pay Differentials Within Organizations, 18 Occupational Choice, Careers, and Work Histories, 2 Culture: Beliefs About Gender and Jobs, 26 Conclusion, 30 References, 31 II. PAPERS Job Evaluation Research and Research Needs Donahue! Schwab IX . 37

x Social Judgment Biases in Comparable Worth Analysis Leslie Zebrowitz McArthur The Economic Case for Comparable Worm Barbara R. Bergmann · · . . The Economics of Comparable Worm: Analytical, Empirical, and Policy Questions Mark R. Killingsworth Jobs, Job Status, and Women's Gains From Aff~rrnative Action: Implications for Comparable Worth James E. Rosenbaum Prospects for Pay Equity in a Changing Economy Pamela Stone Cain Biographical Sketches of Authors Index CONTENTS ... 53 .... 71 86 .116 .137 ...... 167 .171

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Comparable worth—equal pay for jobs of equal value—has been called the civil rights issue of the 1980s. This volume consists of a committee report that sets forth an agenda of much-needed research on this issue, supported by six papers contributed by eminent social scientists. The research agenda presented is structured around two general themes: (1) occupational wage differentials and discrimination and (2) wage adjustment strategies and their impact. The papers deal with a wide range of topics, including job evaluation, social judgment biases in comparable worth analysis, the economics of comparable worth, and prospects for pay equity.

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