Pay Equity Job System example essay topic

691 words
Position paper on Pay Equity: In the last few decades, pay equity has been a topic of concern for women's movements who feel there are injustices within the salary system. The conflict refers to the unequal salary for men and women within Canada, where women generally make less on average then men, a new plan developed by women's movements is men and women receiving the same amount of pay for the same amount of work also called Pay Equity. The intention for pay equity is to not only extend to businesses and companies, but also expand to international market. In order for pay equity to be efficient, a number of concerns must be met such as job evaluation and the economic pros and cons of pay equity. By examining the following aspects my personal opinion will reflect the results that pay equity is not a sensible and effective solution to unequal pay within Canada. In order for pay equity to be successful within Canadian economy, much change should be made including the job evaluation system.

Using a point system, jobs are compared based on physical and mental efforts, jobs with essentially the same responsibilities are rewarded equal pay. However, there are several problems in the job evaluation system. First, the system does not evaluate the job properly, leaving out areas such as; higher risk jobs and unpopular jobs. Employees of privately owned companies would receive higher wages because of the strict budgets forced by public employers. Secondly, pay equity forces all businesses to increase the salary of every individual person, which will cause great financial stress within that business.

In forcing pay equity within business would begin a new kind of discrimination because of the ineffective job evaluation system. Pay equity was introduced in order of equality among men and women to be achieved, but if there are still flaws in the job evaluation system then there is still going to be unequal pay, which is completely defeating the purpose of pay equity. Even if the pay equity job system were improved and even perfected, the negative impact it would have on the Canadian economy is certainly not something we can afford. If pay equity went into effect all businesses would be forced to divert millions of dollars into reconstructing individuals pay systems.

I believe this alone is reason to revaluate the idea of pay equity. Some larger businesses might be able to handle the major cutbacks, although it would be a major set back, but smaller businesses could fail, again negatively affecting the economy. In order for the government to maintain its present state, taxes would increase causing greater conflict and economic decline. Although equality among men and women's wages is an ideal situation, it is certainly not a sensible one, for any one of these problems outweighs a raise among women's pay. In a different sense, there are a few positive effects involved with pay equity. Women who are involved with the pay increase have access to more disposable income.

Since they can distribute and circulate more money, this would be an improvement for the economy. Although this would be an improvement the millions of dollars, it would cost the businesses and economy to allocate this idea certainly outweighs the little extra money in circulation. Pay equity would also benefit the employers, making the appeal to get a job much greater for women rather then jobs who did not offer pay equity. Although a greater attraction towards jobs is a positive side, if every employer forced upon pay equity than there would not be an advantage, because pay equity would be in every job. Although pay equity is an ideal and moral situation, it is defiantly not a polis able idea for our economy. The few benefits would be a good improvement, but the job evaluation and economic negativity absolutely outweigh the pros.

My opinion is based on the information present, which clearly shows pay equity is certainly not a practical solution..