August 16, 2005

"Roberts' support of gender bias."

That's the headline Kos uses to introduce the news that Supreme Court nominee John Roberts opposed a judicial remedy boosting pay in jobs traditionally held by women, where market forces had left the pay lower than for jobs traditionally held by men. In the same post, Kos calls Justice O'Connor: "a tireless crusader for women rights in the workplace and schools." What tiresome exaggerations.

2 comments:

Matt said...

It's worth noting that many people on Kos called that out for what it was (at best, a gross misrepresentation, at worst, deliberate misleading).

Bruce Hayden said...

In other words, he didn't buy into Comparable Worth - one of the stupidest ideas I have ever heard.

The thesis is that different jobs of equal worth should be paid the same, regardless of market forces. Which implies that some outside agency has to decide what jobs are equivalent, and then mandate that those which pay less have their pay increased to be comparable.

But as noted, this short-circuits the capitalisitic price structure for wages. There are valid reasons why most of the "comparable" jobs pay less - often because they allow for easier entry and exit, lending themselves to those bouncing into and out of the job market (i.e. women raising families).

But of course, ease of entry and exit IS a feature that makes the supposedly comparable jobs not comparable (at least, as Comparable Worth has been attempted).

In other words, Rogers apparently opposed a brain dead idea and is getting castigated for it.