Women's Employment and Earnings: Policies and Discrimination Laws, Slides of Economics

Download Women's Employment and Earnings: Policies and Discrimination Laws and more Slides Economics in PDF only on Docsity! Chapter 11 Women’s Employment & Earnings: Policy • Discrimination Law • Affirmative Action • Comparable Worth Docsity.com Why laws? • equity – treat all in the labor market equally • not necessarily equal result • but equal opportunity Docsity.com Federal Laws • Equal Pay Act of 1963 • The Civil Rights Act of 1964 • The ERA (not passed) Docsity.com The Equal Pay Act of 1963 • prohibits wage discrimination for women and men performing work for same employer of similar – skill – effort – responsibility – working conditions Docsity.com • restrictive – how to define “similar”? • covers almost all employers Docsity.com Title VII • hiring/firing/layoff • compensation/benefits • job title/promotions/tranfers • ads/recruitment • training/facilities • disability leave • all employers with > 15 workers Docsity.com • exceptions – if sex, religion, is legitimate job requirement • “BFOQ” – EEOC vs. Hooters (1995) Docsity.com sexual harassment • illegal under title VII • “quid pro quo” – sex-for-job, raise, promotion • hostile work environment – behavior of coworkers make interferes with job Docsity.com Proving discrimination • disparate treatment – individuals treated differently b/c of race, sex, etc. AND – intent to discriminate Docsity.com • disparate impact – even if no intent – firm is liable if actions lead to discriminatory outcome • unless policy is shown to be necessary for job – seniority systems are permitted Docsity.com • pattern of discrimination – defendants regular practice vs. – isolated incident Docsity.com college sports programs • schools comply by – % female athletes proportional to enrollment – history of expanding sports opportunities for females Docsity.com controversy • are low-profile men’s sports cut to comply with Title IX? – due to large spending on sports like men’s basketball & football Docsity.com note • no school has ever lost federal aid for noncompliance with Title IX Docsity.com AA plan • increase employment of women, minorities • outlines goals, timetables Docsity.com cons • AA is reverse discrimination – leads to favoring less-qualified minorities? • illegal under Title VII • stigmatizes women, minorities as less qualified • only applied to a subset of firms Docsity.com pros • forces firms to make focused effort on diverse applicant pool • compensates for past discrimination • benefits to diversified workforce • protection from lawsuits Docsity.com • supporters believe jobs with high % of females are undervalued, relative to skills – correlation between % female and lower pay Docsity.com • Equal Pay Act is very restrictive in what jobs are similar • comparable worth is more general in valuing jobs Docsity.com How to determine value? • do jobs have an intrinsic value or “just wage”? • economists: – value of job is what someone is willing to pay you to do it Docsity.com English profs vs. economics profs • same responsibilities – teaching, research, advising • English profs have higher % female • English profs of same rank earn significantly less Docsity.com demand-side • demand for English course vs. economics courses • implies demand for professors Docsity.com supply-side • supply of English Ph.Ds much larger than supply of economics Ph.Ds Docsity.com problems • what are the relevant skills, working conditions to measure? • is there agreement on their value? • sex-related biases in valuing skills – undervalue typing? nurturing? – overvalue mechanical skills? Docsity.com • states, cities have implemented CW – different conclusions about job values Docsity.com are women better off under CW? • wages rise – but employment growth slows – so higher earnings at the costs of jobs? • & may be distortions in labor market Docsity.com “… Men choose to have children and choose to be admitted to the work force because they’ve already established that women will be doing the caring work, relieving them of the work-family conflict…” Docsity.com “…Society has narrowed women’s choices in a way that it hasn’t narrowed men’s choices.” Docsity.com