Pay Equity Empirical Inquiries (1989) / Chapter Skim
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9. The Impact of Pay Equity on Public Employees: State of Minnesota Employees' Attitudes toward Wage Policy Innovation
9. The Impact of Pay Equity on Public Employees: State of Minnesota Employees' Attitudes toward Wage Policy Innovation
Pages 200-221
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From page 200... ...
began to work for equal pay for work of comparable value for employees of the state of Washington.i Their efforts and the strike of municipal workers in San Jose, California, encouraged the Minnesota AFSCME and the Minnesota Council on the Economic Status of Women to propose legislation reiMany states and localities (including the state of Minnesota and its local jurisdictions) call their comparable worth policies "pay equity, " a term that conveys the goal rather than the process.
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Content In 1982, the State Employees Pay Equity Act was passed with the strong support of AFSCME and the Council on the Economic Status of Women (Evans and Nelson, 1986~.2 The law declared that it was the state's policy "to establish equitable compensation relationships between female-dominated, male-dominated, and balanced classes of employees in the executive branch." The legislation specified that pay equity raises were to be appropriated separately from general salary increments. The first portion of the money for pay equity raises was appropriated the next year.
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An analysis of the Hay Associates job evaluation data by the Council on the Economic Status of Women showed that at the same point value, female-dominate(1 jobs always paid less than the average for male-clominate(l jobs.5 The male wage line was then used in implementing comparable worth. The Minnesota Department of Employee Relations compared the wages of predominantly male ant]
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AFSCME had a particular interest in educating its members about the issue because it represented 62 percent of all state employees, including 75 percent of women working for the state, and almost 85 percent of the employees receiving pay equity raises (AFSCME Council 6, News Release, July 25, 1983; Council on the Economic Status of Women, 1982~. In the two predominantly female bargaining units (health care nonprofessional and clerical)
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. PAY EQUITY: EMPIRICAL INQUIRIES WAGE CHANGES AND LABOR RELATIONS The advocates and opponents of pay equity who have speculated about its consequences in the workplace have emphasized its effects on job satisfaction and employee relations.
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If one stays within this paradigm, one is brought to the untenable position that a change in monetary expectations and an "equivalent" change in monetary rewards results in no change in the total amount of job satisfaction, thus denying the effects of experiencing changes in expectations and rewarcls. The introduction of a pay equity wage policy in the state of Minnesota offers the opportunity to rethink and test, in a very preliminary way, the consequences of wage changes on employees' job satisfaction.
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DATA AND METHODS Survey Design The data used in this analysis are from the Public Employee Survey of 493 state of Minnesota employees fielded by the Minnesota Center for Survey Research in June 1985. Before fielding the survey, the Comparable Worth Research Project cliscussed the survey with the Department of Employee Relations and every public union and labor organization representing state employees.
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" This information was later cross-checked against the official list of job classifications eligible for pay equity raises. Respondents gave information on the size of their pay equity raises for contract year 1984, which was just ending.
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Employees gave the concept of pay equity overwhelming support: 81 percent reported that if studies foun(l the positions of delivery van driver and clerk typist equivalent, the two positions should be paid equivalently (Tables 9-1 through 9-31. Political attitude research has consistently found that Americans are much more willing to support general equity or liberty questions than they are willing to support specific equity or liberty questions.
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(59) Job satisfaction: % very satisfied 57.4 54.6 60.0 55.7 60.0 53.' (493)
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On the one hand, 76 percent of those who reported receiving pay equity raises and 88 percent of those who reported not receiving raises were accurate in their reports. On the other han(l, if we examine those who actually received a pay equity raise, only 57 percent knew they received it.
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The fact that almost half of the recipients of pay equity raises did not know that they received them and even fewer couicl correctly name the amount is one consequence of the implementation process in the state of Minnesota. Perceived Impact We also wanted to know what employees thought would be the long-term impact of the pay equity policy (Tables 9-1 through 9-34.
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This pattern remained the same for men and women, high- and low-salary employees, average and welIeducate(l workers, and people of every organizational experience and ideological persuas~on. The only (listinctive pattern of job satisfaction was associate(1 with the accuracy of reporting an(l receiving pay equity raises.
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and increasing rewards related to those expectations (through pay equity raises known to individuals) increase job satisfaction.
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This is especially evident when assessing the impact of receiving raises on job satisfaction. Although job satisfaction was relatively high for all employees, those who correctly reported receiving pay equity raises were the most satisfied with their work.
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New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Chelte, Anthony F., James Wright, and Curt Tausky 1982 Did job satisfaction really drop during the 1970's?
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1977 Work values and job rewards: A theory of job satisfaction. American Sociological Review 42(1)
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