First things first. If a person is paid less solely based on race, religion or sex they should have their day in court and that company/employer should be shamed into oblivion.
That said I need help understanding how any legislation applies in a real world scenario and not an abstract vacuum with no other variables.
Help me with these real world scenarios and convince conservatives and independents that this can work.
Having spent many years working for and with a variety of different companies both large and small I have seen this issue from many different angles.
Scenario 1: A large to mid-size corporation is hiring outside to fill 2 VP level positions. Both positions have the same duties, responsibilities and title. One of the positions being filled is for a department that accounts for 40% of current revenue and 60% of projected growth. The second position is for a department that accounts for 20% of current revenue and is expected to have negative growth. In other words VP 1 is heading up digital media sales and VP 2 is heading up DVD sales.
If VP 2 is a woman does anyone expect her to make the same as VP 1 if he is a man? Even of the positions are filled from within I would expect a significant pay differential between the two positions.
Scenario 2: Positions that were filled under previous pay scales or during a labor friendly market. For this I will use the I.T field. Based on industry needs their are times when I.T is in such high demand that bidding wars ensue and new hires make out very well. Once they are in place businesses do not want to "rock the boat" because of the institutional knowledge that person has. However, newer hires may be brought in for much less than what the original hire was brought in for. Under this scenario you can have 2 employees doing similar work with virtually identical credentials with one making much less. If the newer employee is a woman does she have a legitimate gripe?
Scenario 3: The position occupied by the woman is just not that important. Case and point Morning Joe. If you are one of the dozens that watch this show every morning you would know there was a time when Mika made less than Joe. What Joe did was admirable, by going to management and helping Mika secure equal pay he made a kind and honorable gesture. But lets face it. If Mika left tomorrow there would be dozens of options to fill the seat and the show will go on. If Joe left it becomes a new show...probably a better one, but a new show
Better yet, should Robyn make as much money as Howard Stern?
Scenario 4: Through the leaked Sony emails we saw that Jennifer Lawrence made less on her starring role than her male counterpart. I have no issue with this. This is free market at work. She was relatively new at the time and could not command the big pay checks. Does anyone think a male co-star opposite of Julia Roberts at her prime would be paid the same. Better yet, as Lawrence stock rises, other male co-stars will make less than her. It is similar to the trajectory of a major league baseball player. The first 6 years of their career they are underpaid, the next 3 they are fairly compensated and then the last 6 they are usually overpaid.
I think the challenge that any legislation faces is how is it implemented in the real world. There are too many variables, such as work performance, job market at time of hire, significance of job and other factors that make pursuing a remedy under the law would be almost impossible.
Furthermore, there are always unintended consequences of any legislation such as this. For example a large employer may then decide to standardize pay across the board and raise the pay of all women and men so that it is equal. Many employees may receive raises they did not deserve and it would come at the expense of others who did deserve raises.
Again, I am for eliminating the discrimination against women in the workforce. I know it exists and with more and more women becoming primary earners (as single mothers, lesbian marriages or with husbands out of work or downsized) I have just not heard of any proposed legislation that will do really fix this.
I did not write this diary to pee in anyone's punch bowl, but to see how the goal of eliminating gender pay discrimination can be achieved.