IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/h/nbr/nberch/7156.html
   My bibliography  Save this book chapter

Comparable Worth in the Public Sector

In: Public Sector Payrolls

Author

Listed:
  • Ronald G. Ehrenberg
  • Robert S. Smith

Abstract

Proponents of comparable worth assert that within a firm jobs can be valued in terms of the skill, effort and responsibility they require, as well as the working conditions they offer, and that jobs that are of comparable worth to the firm should receive equal compensation. After documenting the major push that has occurred for comparable worth in the state and local sector, Section II of our paper discusses the case for and against comparable worth from the perspective of analystical economists.The reminder of the paper is empirical in nature and focuses on issues that arise when one attempts to implement comparable worth. Section III addresses attempts by various states to infer if comparable worth "wage gaps" exist from job evaluation studies they have conducted and tests how sensitive their results are to the statistical methods used to infer discrimination. Section IV estimates whether male/female comparable worth wage gaps nay partially be compensating differentials for differences in opportunity for occupational nobility. Finally Section V presents estimates of systems of demand curves for state and local government employees and tests whether within occupational groups male/female substitution occurs as male/female wage rates change and whether substitution occurs across occupations as occupational wages change. These estimates are then used to simulate what the likely effect of a comparable worth wage policy would be on employment of females in the state and local sector.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Ronald G. Ehrenberg & Robert S. Smith, 1987. "Comparable Worth in the Public Sector," NBER Chapters, in: Public Sector Payrolls, pages 243-290, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberch:7156
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/chapters/c7156.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Daniel S. Hamermesh & James Grant, 1979. "Econometric Studies of Labor-Labor Substitution and Their Implications for Policy," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 14(4), pages 543-562.
    2. R. G. Gregory & R. C. Duncan, 1981. "Segmented Labor Market Theories and the Australian Experience of Equal Pay for Women," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 3(3), pages 403-428, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. John Raisian & Michael R. Ward & Finis Welch, 1986. "Pay Equity And Comparable Worth," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 4(2), pages 4-20, April.
    2. Ronald G. Ehrenberg, 1988. "Econometric Analyses of the Empirical Consequences of Comparable Worth: What Have We Learned?," NBER Working Papers 2672, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. repec:eee:labchp:v:3:y:1999:i:pc:p:3573-3630 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Gregory, Robert G. & Borland, Jeff, 1999. "Recent developments in public sector labor markets," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 53, pages 3573-3630, Elsevier.
    5. George E. Johnson & Gary Solon, 1984. "Pay Differences Between Women's and Men's Jobs: The Empirical Foundations of Comparable Worth Legislation," NBER Working Papers 1472, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Frondel, Manuel & Schmidt, Christoph M., 2003. "Rejecting capital-skill complementarity at all costs," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 80(1), pages 15-21, July.
    2. Maya Eden & Paul Gaggl, 2018. "On the Welfare Implications of Automation," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 29, pages 15-43, July.
    3. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/9081 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Ostry, Jonathan D. & Espinoza, Raphael & Papageorgiou, Chris, 2019. "The Armistice of the Sexes: Gender Complementarities in the Production Function," CEPR Discussion Papers 13792, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    5. Grant, James H & Hamermesh, Daniel S, 1981. "Labor Market Competition among Youths, White Women and Others," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 63(3), pages 354-360, August.
    6. Steve Dowrick, 1993. "Enterprise Bargaining, Union Structure and Wages," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 69(4), pages 393-404, December.
    7. Francine D. Blau & Lawrence M. Kahn, 2003. "Understanding International Differences in the Gender Pay Gap," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 21(1), pages 106-144, January.
    8. Etienne Wasmer, 2009. "Links between labor supply and unemployment: theory and empirics," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 22(3), pages 773-802, July.
    9. Gregory, Terry & Zierahn, Ulrich, 2022. "When the minimum wage really bites hard: The negative spillover effect on high-skilled workers," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 206(C).
    10. Arnaud Dupuy & Lex Borghans, 2005. "Supply and demand, allocation and wage inequality: an international comparison," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(9), pages 1073-1088.
    11. Kelly Bedard, 2001. "Human Capital versus Signaling Models: University Access and High School Dropouts," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 109(4), pages 749-775, August.
    12. James P. Vere, 2001. "Education, Technology and the Wage Structure in Taiwan, 1979-1998," Working Papers 208, Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Research Program in Development Studies..
    13. Peters, Cornelius, 2015. "Do age complementarities affect labour productivity? Evidence from German firm level data," VfS Annual Conference 2015 (Muenster): Economic Development - Theory and Policy 112941, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    14. Paolo Epifani & Gino Gancia, 2008. "The Skill Bias of World Trade," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(530), pages 927-960, July.
    15. Gerard Lind & Rebecca Colquhoun, 2021. "Analysis of gender segregation within detailed occupations and industries in Australia," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 24(1), pages 47-69.
    16. Robert Drago, 1994. "Employee Involvement in Australia: Workplace Transformation or the Disposable Workplace?," Labor and Demography 9402003, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Anne Daly & Xin Meng & Akira Kawaguchi & Karen Mumford, 2006. "The Gender Wage Gap in Four Countries," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 82(257), pages 165-176, June.
    18. Rudy Fichtenbaum & John P. Blair, 1989. "Regional Differences in Labor Demand in The United States," The Review of Regional Studies, Southern Regional Science Association, vol. 19(1), pages 72-76, Winter.
    19. Callan, Tim & Wren, Anne, 1994. "Male-Female Wage Differentials: Analysis and Policy Issues," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number GRS163, June.
    20. Joe Isaac, 2008. "The Economic Consequences Of Harvester," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 48(3), pages 280-300, November.
    21. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/9081 is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Mari Kangasniemi & Matilde Mas & Catherine Robinson & Lorenzo Serrano, 2012. "The economic impact of migration: productivity analysis for Spain and the UK," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 38(3), pages 333-343, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nbr:nberch:7156. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.